Projects from 2008 to the present are documented in detail at the links below.
Amplified Habitat Installations for Wild Bees (2010 onward) featuring
Sensory Bee Booths & Cabinets | Habitat Walls
Sarah Peebles & collaborators
These works provide an accessable window to the public to enhance our understanding and appreciation of our local pollination ecology. These are permanent installations which provide nesting habitat and shelter for wild, solitary bees and wasps while allowing the viewer to watch and listen to their activities from the ‘inside’, up close.
Inhabitants at Sonic Solitaries cabinets with biologist Susan Frye, Toronto.
Dwelling series of nest sites for native bees: habitat walls with cabinets
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Bumble Domicile (2008)
Sarah Peebles, Rob King, Anne Barros, Rob Cruickshank, with the Flower Anther Swabbing Team (F.A.S.T.)
This group show highlighted distinct features of bumble bees – native bees which are social – through observation of the physical world, visual and audio transformations, scent, touch and genetic and other biological information. The installation featured a live colony of bumbles within the gallery which interfaced with gardens & community spaces outside. We introduced solitary bees through playful and informative trading cards, included as a means to contextualize the larger world of wild bees. Bumble Domicile coincided with “A Guide to Toronto’s Pollinators”, written by Laurence Packer and published by the David Suzuki Foundation. The exhibition included talks on related topics by collaborating researchers Laurence Packer, Jessamyn Manson, Peter Hallett and Stephen Buchmann.
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Odes to Solitary Bees (2010 onward)
Stephen Humphrey combines ‘video poems’ and the written word in homage to Toronto’s solitary stem nesting bees. As the bees create nests, manipulate pollen, and hang out in Peebles’ Audio Bee Booth, we enter their world through macro video with micro audio. Put on your headphone to enjoy!
See Credits for Artists, collaborating and advising researchers and funders to date. Have a question, feedback or an idea you want to share? Comments are open here.
