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Gallery exhibit bee friendly with Monique Martin

It was in Paris, France, when artist Monique Martin was inspired to do a multidisciplinary exhibit relating to bees and colony collapse.

It was in Paris, France, when artist Monique Martin was inspired to do a multidisciplinary exhibit relating to bees and colony collapse.

Now at the Humboldt and District Gallery, Martin has put her work on display with Continuous, her extensive printmaking, sculpted, and painted display of the importance of bees.

“If the bees die, we’re toast,” said Martin during her opening reception at the Humboldt and District Gallery on Jan. 10 with 35 people coming to speak with Martin.

Walking through the gallery, Martin’s seven foot panels tell the story from a healthy beehive to a collapsed one as people are surround by the sounds and smells of a beehive watching the number of bees dissipate from the panels.

In total, 54,000 hexagons and around 3,000 bees make up Martin’s exhibit, including her 24 foot long, 12 panel piece of black and white print.

Visitors can also make their own behive with 250 interactive panels available for people to make a healthy or unhealthy beehive.

Immersion and the multi-sensory aspects of her exhibit was a goal for Martin because she wanted people to engage with the art and keep something with them as they leave.

“With the sound experience and smell here, it all fits together and changes the environment of the gallery.”

Katelyn Roughley with the Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery says this is the first time the Gallery has had such an immersive exhibit.

Considering colony collapse disorder is becoming so prevalent, not just in Saskatchewan but also Canada and the world, it is important to have the exhibit in the gallery and start those discussions, says Roughley.

Walking past the gallery, people may have noticed the hexagon chains in the trees as done by Martin. This was the first part of Martin’s exhibit and represents the connectedness that everyone has and the links people have with the bees, she says.

“The hexagons are connected and everybody in the world has a connection to other people...when we affect one of those in a negative way, it ripples through those chains of connection and those chains can break.”

While Martin wanted to focus on the artistry of bees rather than the science, Martin still researched the patterns of the hives as they go from healthy to extremely unhealthy.

“The queen starts laying eggs in weird patterns, and the bees don’t know how to care for the little ones because they’re in the wrong spot. There’s this whole mathematical thing to how they’re laid out and I tried to replicate that.”

Part of Martin’s visit to Humboldt included working with the grade 5 St. Augustine students on stamping panels similar to hers.

Martin says that they were horrified by the time they visited the back panel to see the bees disappear from one panel to another.

“That’s something powerful for children to see something alive and then not alive. Kids don’t go into beehives.”

As artist-in-residence at Disneyland Paris, Martin got involved in bees and beekeeping as she walked past urban apiaries.

“I had to walk by them everyday. I just became fascinated and started working with the beekeepers and became more fascinated.”

The connection between the beekeepers and their bees as well as bees with human existence was powerful to watch, says Martin, especially when disaster stuck.

“I happen to see one of the hives in Paris with colony collapse. I saw it be burned to the ground because you have to do that and it just changed how I saw the world.”

Workshops will be run throughout the two months of Continuous being in the gallery. Any school interested in visiting the gallery for a workshop can call Roughley.