“A personal connection with the environment is at the heart of my work, which is first and foremost a celebration of the natural world.” – Ava Roth
Ava Roth is a Toronto-based encaustic (hot wax) and mixed media artist working with unusual collaborators: European honey bees (Apis mellifera). Through her art, Roth explores the intersection between human beings and the natural world and encourages an engagement with both the natural and the handmade.
Using organic materials such as horsehair, birch bark, Japanese paper, and porcupine quills, Roth creates a design enclosed within an embroidery hoop. She then places the hoop in a traditional hive frame – a removable, rectangular frame beekeepers use, inside of which honey bees create honeycomb. Working with a beekeeper, Roth slips the frame into an established hive, where the bees – often thousands of them – begin their part of the project. The bees set to work constructing their mass of hexagonal prismatic wax cells around Roth’s embroidery hoops. The results of this interchange between artist and insects are unpredictable. A honeycomb’s color, texture, and time of completion vary based on factors that include temperature and sunlight. Once the comb is complete, Roth removes the frame containing her embroidered work – now also featuring honeycomb – and replaces it with a standard hive frame.
Roth is quick to note that she has the deepest respect for the bees. She does not use any potentially dangerous materials, nor does she manipulate the hive in any way that disturbs the colony’s work. “We always ensure the hives we use for this project have a robust colony, with lots of extra comb and nectar beyond what they need for their own use,” she said. “Like all my work, my bee colony project explores the boundaries of where humans collide with the natural environment and imagines a more beautiful outcome of our encounter.”
The Bee Colony Project is a springboard to the rest of Ava Roth’s encaustic, textile, and mixed media work. She is represented by Wallspace Gallery in Toronto, Canada. She may be reached through her website and Instagram.