The is on show at York St Mary鈥檚 鈥 York Art Gallery鈥檚 contemporary art space until 22 June, presenting the works of eight shortlisted artists spanning media from painting and photography to installation and performance. Winning artist Sybille Neumeyer talks to Steve Pratt from The Northern Echo about her light installation, which was inspired by her desire to save the world鈥檚 bees. Read Pratt’s full interview here.
Research while pursuing her interest in natural weather indicators led German artist Sybille Neumeyer working with beekeepers in America. 鈥淪uddenly, I really fell in love with this little species and started observing them day-by-day,鈥 she explains, standing in front of her artwork, Song For The Last Queen, at York St Mary鈥檚.
鈥淭hey inspired me so much that I started researching more about them, and found out they are endangered nowadays. I read about the reasons they were dying and the impact they might have on our eco-system.鈥 The result is a piece featuring 7,613 bees preserved in small individual honey-filled phials that, from a distance, looks like a musical score and on closer inspection is a collapsed bee colony preserved in honey.
The piece won the artist the Main Award in the Aesthetica Art Prize 2014 and a place in the exhibition showcasing the work of the short-listed artists. The prize is organised by York-based , one of the UK鈥檚 largest art publications that is distributed overseas.
Neumeyer is based in Germany, but travels a lot, combining ideas and impressions from her travels with her work. The bees are German bees. After spending time in the US, and meeting many beekeepers, she connected with beekeepers鈥 clubs in Germany. 鈥淚 started talking to them about their problems, why bees are dying in Germany and about my experiences in England and the US. Then I found one beekeeper who told me one of his hives had died during the winter, so I took the hive from him and worked with the bees inside.鈥
The 7,614 bees in Song For The Last Queen represent only an eighth of the colony. Inspiration came from many levels. 鈥淚t started with the research about the colour of the honey and about how honey is used in our daily lives and in traditions. I got to the point that it鈥檚 used as a conservation material for mummifying a king or as a medicine,鈥 she says.
鈥淪lowly, I played with the idea of how to conserve them and how science tries to save things after they are already dead to put them in a museum. The question for me is that we have to save them before they die out.鈥 As she put together the glass phials containing bees in honey, she came to realise it resembled writing or a score. That led her to making three pages of a musical score. Each bee was carefully placed without fixing solution in a phial of honey, the amount one bee can produce in a lifetime.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a silent score. It鈥檚 more about how you can see something, but you cannot hear it. When you approach this piece from far away you will see something very aesthetic and attractive, but the closer you get the more aware you are this is dead material and get this sad feeling. The piece is called Song For The Last Queen, but the queen is already missing, she鈥檚 not there.鈥
Music is also a feature in student prize winner Harriet Lewars鈥 monumental sculpture Frustum Super Planum Cum Filia Lyrae 鈥 a piece where art meets music. Frustums are truncated cones built in metal, which act as a soundboard from which many strings are stretched and can be plucked. Visitors are being encouraged to play the instrument.
There were more entries than ever for the prize, according to Cherie Federico, director of the Aesthetica Art Prize and editor of 人妻少妇专区 鈥淚t鈥檚 really exciting because of the diversity of the works and the artists themselves, who are coming from New Zealand, Chile, Germany and, obviously, the UK to be at the awards evening.
鈥淲ith that comes this really outward-looking approach to contemporary art. The pieces in this show are not just about the art, they鈥檙e about the messages they give and are very powerful pieces of work. 鈥淭he concurrent theme running through the works is how they reflect the world today. That鈥檚 one of the most powerful things about the exhibition this year 鈥 they鈥檙e relevant and showing things about the world in which we live today. They inspire you to think and to engage further with them.鈥
The 3,000 entrants came from further afield, which isn鈥檛 surprising as the magazine has a readership of 167,000 in 20 countries. 鈥淏ecause the magazine is spread to such a wide audience, through our Art Prize we鈥檙e able to engage with people who not only live in the UK, but in all corners of the world,鈥 she adds.
A series of events including talks, art walks and families activities will run alongside the exhibition, staged in collaboration with .
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking to bring these artworks to a wide audience, not solely engage with the art world. We want to introduce these pieces to people who maybe don鈥檛 engage that much with other art. We want them to come into the gallery and to enjoy themselves,鈥 says Federico.
To see the feature visit
Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition, until 22 June 2014 at York St Mary鈥檚, Castlegate, York, YO1 9RN. Free Admission, Open Daily 10.00am 鈥 5.00pm
Find out more at .
Credits
1. Sybille Neumeyer, Song For The Last Queen (2013). Photo courtesy of
