A scientist-turned-artist has taken dead bees and used them as a
scaffold for deep blue copper sulphate crystals.
Simon Park, a senior lecturer in microbiology at the University
of Surrey, told Wired.co.uk that he was inspired by JG Ballard's
Crystal World, in which a physician making his way to a
leprosy treatment facility in Africa encounters a mysterious
phenomenon that crystallises everything it touches. The crystals in
the book also preserve any objects -- including plants and animals
-- contained within them.
"Having learnt that the apocalyptic die off of bees was due to their ability to accumulate environmental toxins and how this
weakened them and made them more susceptible to disease,
concentrating chemicals onto their dead bodies and turning them
into crystals seemed to me to be the perfect way of highlighting
their plight and also reflecting my fascination with The
Crystal World," Park told Wired.co.uk.
Park was looking for dead bees for a few months but then a week
ago found "a scene of devastation", with around 100 dead or dying
bees underneath a eucalyptus tree. "This finding provided me with
all the dead bees that I needed for my process," he said.
To create the bee crystals, he made a supersaturated solution of
copper sulphate, into which he immersed the bees. As the solution
cools, it starts to form crystals around the bee carcasses.
"I'm planning to do this with more bees and also with other
crystallizing chemicals to create a unique collection of
mineralized bees in order to highlight their plight," added.
On Park's website, he mentions that his work is dedicated to Regis
Cochefert, the Arts Programme Manager at Paul Hamlyn Foundation,
"who doubted me". When quizzed about this, Park explained: "As a
scientist-turned-artist, I find it very difficult to get my work
accepted by either of these fields." He adds that, because he
doesn't have any formal training as an artist, Cochefert is
"dismissive" of his work.
When Wired.co.uk asked Cochefert about this, he said: "I only
met Simon recently, when he was interviewed by a Wellcome
Foundation panel on which I sat. We had a series of questions about
his work as a scientist and as an artist. I don't think we were too
hard on him, and I wouldn't want him to think we were