Who needs paint and canvas when you can use bees and honeycombs? Such is the thinking of Chinese artist Ren Ri, whose amazing maps are now on display at Hong Kong's Pearl Lam Gallery.
The sculpture series is called "Yauansu I: The Origin of Geometry." Yuan means "element," and su means "mold," so Yuansu loosely translates (and is intended by Ri to mean) "a comprehension of the gestalt of life." Indeed, these sculptures are certainly more than the sum of their parts.
Global Map:
Japan:
France:
Indonesia and Malaysia:
Russia:
Ri has also created a series of geometric structures. To create them, Ri places a queen bee in the middle of a box. He then changes the position every seven days (his hat tip to the Seven Days of Creation). The worker bees then build natural beehives around the queen bee, producing these incredible organic structures.
A beekeeper, Ri has been doing this since 2006. His says his sculptures demonstrate both the harmony and destruction when humans interact with nature. In this case, it shows the wondrous results of productive collaboration.
[ via Design Taxi & Distractify ]
Images: Ren Ri/Pearl Lam Galleries