interview published on tits&co

in 2013, i had been living with a swarming colony of bees in my dining room for six months, which allowed me to observe them daily and begin studying the similarities between humans’ and bees’ society, reading essays of scientists and biologists.

three years later, as part of a group exhibition in a museum, i realized a video installation titled ‘in a good state’, which was made by tens of infested bee frames (coming from abandoned hives): it represented a deficiency between virtual bustle and real evidence. exactly like that, a few weeks later, the curator called me in astonishment: the overlaying wall of the venue was overwhelmed by larvae, crawling all onto the floor.

the silent reality was that the pupae had been eating bee cells this entire time before turning back into nymphs. it was such a marvelous and scary scene, and the whole bee frames looked like patterns of cotton guipure. thus i did it again as they told me. i learnt a great lesson. at that time i used bee frames like an object and it’s not at all – each frame takes a case history of its inhabitants and human eyes can’t see, but we can respect it.  

currently, i let moths colonize my artworks, so that larvae could mold them in a beautiful guipure, they last as wizards before they spread their wings again.

april 30, 2020