Remarkables Park’s Te Atamira this week opened its newest exhibition, ‘Let the Honey Soak Through’, a collaboration between Otago-born artists Taarn Scott and Hana Pere Aoaki (Ngāti Hinerangi, Ngāti Mahuta, Tainui/Waikato, Ngāti Waewae, Tauranga), designed to champion our native bees.
Inspired by bee networks and their relationship with the environment, the exhibition examines the patterns bees create to sustain their lives, replicated by human systems, hiveware, keepers and agricultural formations.
It also shines a light on ngaro huruhuru — New Zealand’s 28 native bee species — which are essential pollinators to our native plants and vital for understanding the complexity of te aitanga pepeke (the insect world) in climate adaptation.
Much of the work within the exhibition utilises blue tones — the colour which most attracts honeybees — including Te Atamira’s gallery space.
It also includes retired hives from local honey and hive company Be Local, and a bespoke reading nook with books on the exhibition’s themes, on loan from Queenstown council’s libraries, while Country Lane’s Buzzstop honey centre also provided honey and honeycomb for guests at Tuesday’s official opening, which also included a spoken word performance from poets Liz Breslin, Talia Marshall (Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Takihiku), Julian Noel (Ngati Whatua/Ngati Torehina), and Bethany Rogers.
‘Let the Honey Soak Through’ runs till April 27.
