A New Destiny is Prepared

An Tobar's 2005 Artist in Residence, Cath Keay, returns with a new exhibition exploring the connections between bees, architecture and the behaviour and communication of crowds. The central feature consists of six sculptures sitting on illuminated plinths on top of a layer of honey. Cath Keay's recent work relates to crowd psychology; in particular, to the internal organisation of uprisings, riots and mass hysteria in human society against external control. These sculptures were created by introducing models of significant 1930s public buildings, formed in foundation wax (flat sheets of beeswax that are put into frames inside beehives) into functioning hives. The bees assimilate and combine these models into their combs, and their interaction therefore determines the final form. The resulting sculptures are extremely delicate.

Cath Keay explains; "I work with a beekeeper, Brian Pool at the Scottish Agricultural College. The bees will only work on the sculpture in the summer once they have a whole box of honey stored underneath them and they are desperate to continue building. So that's when we put the sculptures into the hives, and the bees work on them. Once the bees get the hexagonal cells big enough they put in the honey and seal the ends off. The sculpture is taken out of the hive at this point and left at the other end of the field for a couple of days. The bees find it and take the honey back out and I end up with a totally clean sculpture. If the sculptures were left in the hive the bees would keep going and continue to modify the building until you couldn't see any of the form I had built." Showing alongside these sculptures are a series of black and white photographs of the models before they were introduced to the hive. This reflects specific design scheme features common in public building in the 1930s. On the west wall of the gallery there is a light-box composed of honeycomb frames with a text statement constructed by dropping lead shot into empty wax cells. These are fixed in clear resin and the whole piece is illuminated from behind. The text reads 'A New Destiny is Prepared'- a phrase picked out from an old beekeeping manual of the time that embodies some type of social dictate. As part of this exhibition An Tobar has commissioned a sculpture of the iconic 1930s CalMac ferry terminal building at the CalMac Pier in Tobermory.

As a sculptor, Cath Keay is interested in forms with a practical purpose. Buildings affect those who use them - architecture is a form built ostensibly for utility, yet it communicates the undercurrents of political or social forces at the time. In the 1930s there was a utopian vision of architecture that transcended national boundaries, hence named the International Style, "I really like the 1930s architectural style, and it lends itself to being made out of beeswax. Also a lot of 1930s building are long and flat, very modern looking and that shape fits well into a 'super', which is a honey-making box. The International Style emerged at a time when things were both building up and breaking down in human society. The way I sum that up is that it was a time when people were swarming - building up into huge movements with idealistic notions that appealed to peoples under those circumstances, but with disastrous consequences when they were put into action. This relates obviously to fascism, but also to the International Style designs, which were not globally practical. Flat roofs for instance did not translate well to the wet Scottish climate." Bees are social animals that also build structures; like humans, they follow strict building regulations in the orientation and layout of what they build. The featured buildings were all built for crowds - the beeswax sculptures record in 3D the actions of a 'crowd' of insects, "The study of mass behavour of crowds is well documented, but I have also been reading 'Crowds and Power' by Elias Canetti, who describes metaphors for crowds and writes about how patterns of behavour begin in crowds. He believes mob behavour is not chaotic and inevitable; it's got to have certain elements to begin. The ideas in this book equate to bee behavour. I wanted to highlight that we behave like animals, but when you say that it makes it sound like a negative statement, rather that just a statement."

In addition to the Gallery I exhibition, the installation 'Silk Moths' by Cath Keay will be showing at Glengorm Castle, near Tobermory by appointment until 14th August. (Call Kate Leney on 01688 302932 / 07870169805)

Gallery I, An Tobar
Monday - Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday (August only) 1pm - 4pm
Admission Free