VDES
2025- ongoing
Bees are a keystone species, essential to the cycle of life on Earth. Across cultures, they are elevated to the highest status- revered as sacred animals, conduits between life and death, or the literal tears of God. This profound connection is mirrored in linguistics: 'vdes' is an Albanian word signifying death, applied specifically to either a human or a bee.
There is an old European tradition called ‘telling the bees’. According to custom, the hives of a household are respectfully informed of major events in the beekeepers household such as births and deaths. In the case of a death, the bees are ‘put into mourning’ and a black ribbon placed on the hive. If this custom was forgotten and the bees not told, it is believed a penalty would be paid: the hive would leave, stop making honey, or perish.
My ongoing project Vdes takes place in an eventful world in which no-one in our household remembered to keep the bees duly informed. Now we suffer the consequences of this disrespect.
Vdes I consists of 365 electro formed bees on a simple platform of black glass. Through an almost alchemical transformation, each bee has been encased in a shroud of metal, conferring an inherent sanctity upon its form. For me, preserving dead bees in this way has become a daily ritual to acknowledge the sacred, fragile, and cyclical nature of existence.
Vdes I was shown as part of the 2025 Melville Contemporary exhibition, Goolugatup Heathcote, City of Melville, Western Australia.
Vdes II continues my interest in themes of loss, continuity, and slow gestures of respect. Taking inspiration from columbariums and reliquaries, this ongoing work features 144 handmade ceramic tiles. Individual, electroformed bees nestle into niches pressed by the my thumb into the wet clay. Here, the simple gesture of touch creates a resting place for each body, underscoring the intrinsic connection- both ecological and spiritual- between our species and all life.
Vdes II was shown as part of the 2026 Invitation Art Prize exhibition, Joondalup Contemporary Art Gallery, City of Joondalup, Western Australia.
Winner of the $25 000 acquisitive top prize.
Photos by Aaron Claringbold.
Very special thanks to Wendy McIntyre, my bee buddy, for her support of this project.
