Venice: Judi Harvest – Denatured: Honeybees + Murano exhibition. In the Scola
dei Battioro e Tiraoro an eighteen-century building on the Grand Canal is one
of the two locations for New York based artist Judi Harvest fourteenth solo
exhibition in Venice, Denatured:
Honeybees + Murano, until October 31. The exhibition is dedicated to
raising awareness of both the global environmental threat to honeybees and the
local threat to artistic heritage
that is represented by the closing of glass
factories in Murano. The exhibition is curated by art historian Marcia E.
Vetrocq and conceived in partnership with Bees Without Borders, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to promoting beekeeping skills for the alleviation of
poverty around the world.
Judi Harvest – Denatured:
Honeybees + Murano exhibition. Judi harvest is photographed near Honey Vessels: Double Line (2013), a
6-meter-long, wall-mounted installation comprising ninety hand-made glass vessels
created by the artist with the master glass blowers of Linea Arianna. Also on
view is the video Breakfast with the
Bees (2013) and a group of paintings, as well as, Murano glass
sculptures inspired by the anatomy and behavior of the honeybee, the liquid
state of honey (akin to that of molten glass), and the modular geometric
structure characteristic of the hive.
Scola dei Battioro e Tiraoro: Judi Harvest – Denatured: Honeybees + Murano exhibition.
A view of the upper level of the exhibition with photographs
of the second location of the exhibition in Murano. During March, Judi Harvest created
a bee-friendly garden in the 250-square-meter field, designing an environment
of thirty fruit trees and five hundred fragrant, flowering plants that are home
to four fully functioning hives. The first honey from Murano will be harvested
during the summer. The plantings and hives will remain in place to be cared for
by local gardeners and beekeepers, who will regularly gather the honey.