Yuansu II - Ren Ri

Beijing based artist and beekeeper Ren Ri has created a series of works for a piece called 'Yuansu II' (roughly translating to Element II). He has collaborated with bees to create works using honeycombs inside plastic polyhedrons of different configurations with a queen located in the centre. The structure of the bee's construction is further randomised by the artist determining a rotation of the polyhedra every seventh day with a roll of the dice.Ren Ri states that one of the purposes of Yuansu II is to "eliminate the subjectivity of the artist" via "the mediation of bees". I would argue that he is also re-injecting the artist back into the work by his rotation of the hives thereby taking away some of the design decisions of the bees through randomisation of their construction.Ren Ri states that he enjoys the instability of beeswax and the fact that it can change shape with temperature. This is something that I also enjoy about the material. Apart from the use of beeswax I relate to the uncontrolled geometric growth at play in this work. I enjoy multiples of objects and in this case the multiples are the hexagonal cells of the hive. I do love the polyhedral containers from a purely aesthetic standpoint, but I'm not sure they actually contribute to the work as a whole? I can't tell if the shapes of the containers significantly change the structure of the hives or extend the work in any way.http://www.coolhunting.com/culture/ren-ris-bees-wax-sculptureshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/05/beeswax-sculptures-ren-ri_n_5523996.htmlhttp://museum.cafa.com.cn/en/