The Hive

I recently viewed a documentary titled Rivers and Tides featuring the artist Andrew Goldsworthy. He is wonderful artist to watch and listen to. He discusses his process and his motivation in a way that I found very insightful and agreed with on many levels. After taking in the film and letting his ideas rattle around it my mind for awhile I felt as though I needed to attempt a piece similar to his. By no means is it on the level he takes his work to, but I found joy and interest in working on the Hive on the Winooski River in Vermont.

(click on images for a larger view)

My younger sister was visiting Vermont when we took on the project. We had a expansive array of material due to the flooding rivers of this past year's hurricane season. We dealt only with natural pieces of wood and wood that was uncut by human hands. The base measured about 10-11 feet in diameter and it reached up to around 7-8 feet tall. It took about 6 hours to build from when we stepped onto the site till we left for a well deserved beer. The structure stood for about four weeks until one day it vanished entirely. Being composed a few hundred feet from a large dam, this was no surprise. In this world most natural structures (whether man-made or naturally-made) are destroyed or altered by industry at some point or another.


The concept was to organically organize a large collection of a very similar sized and textured material. We wanted to avoid a set shape and allow the wood to interact together as we placed piece by piece. In a way, we wanted this interaction to create the final shape and size. It finally took on the shape of a beehive, in which the name is derived from. We grew attached to the material and began to really understand how certain bends and notches would interact with others. The wood gave us clues on how it would work best within the means of itself. If it wasn't for our perception of these clues the structure may not have held as strong for as long as it did.

All photos are shot on 35mm Black and White film via a 1981 Minolta X-700 SLR (thanks to my mother).