Resonating Bodies is a series of mixed media installations and community outreach projects, which focus on the biodiversity of pollinators indigenous to the ecosystems of the Greater Toronto Area. Conceived by Sarah Peebles with Rob King, Rob Cruickshank and Anne Barros, the installations illuminate aspects of local biodiversity, such as bumblebee colonies and their foraging activities, ultraviolet bee vision, and pollinator/plant co-evolution.
Resonating Bodies coincides with the release of Toronto’s first guide to native bees, “A guide to Toronto’s Pollinators”, by Laurence Packer, Professor of Biology at York University and published by the David Suzuki Foundation. Free copies of this booklet will also be available throughout July at several locations. The topic of the booklet — some 23 genera of bees found in Toronto —has inspired our exhibition. Collaborating researchers Laurence Packer, Jessamyn Manson, Peter Hallett and Stephen Buchmann will be giving talks throughout the period of the exhibition.
Bumble Domicile, the first installment of the Resonating Bodies project, uses an on-site bumblebee hive at *new* Gallery (906 Queen street West) and displays video and audio of its internal activity, as well as other visual and aesthetic interpretations of pollinators. Headphones that “plug” into the actual hive give the viewer opportunity to hear the bees while observing them working in the hive. The space is filled with Continuous audio transformations of pre-recorded bees and shoh, the Japanese mouth-organ; an instrument which has utilized beeswax and resin since ancient times.
Viewers are also invited to take free bee trading cards, featuring macro photography of bee anatomy, life facts and colour-coded DNA barcodes of the local bee species featured in Resonating Bodies. These cards are the first in a series of trading cards of pollinators featured in Resonating Bodies at both *new* gallery and at the bee – wasp condo at the Franklin Children’s Garden on Toronto Island.
Resonating Bodies- Bumble Domicile (part 1), July 4-27 2008 on view at *new* Gallery 906 Queen Street West, Toronto (corner of Crawford and Queen W.)
Via akimbo.