Honeycomb puffs up on Ava Roth’s embroidered works in collaboration with bees — Colossal



Art

#Ava Roth #beads #bees #embroidery #encaustic

Artist Ava Roth (formerly) continues his lavish honeycomb works made through ongoing interspecies collaboration. Working with bee colonies in recent years, the Toronto-based artist creates delicate encaustic pieces that emphasize natural processes and the allure of organic aesthetics. Set within wooden frames enhanced by rounded shapes that evoke embroidery hoops, the mixed-media compositions begin with Roth’s carefully stitched motifs and beaded embellishments. Once his portion is finished, he inserts the works into the hives of his six-legged collaborators to build their waxy forms.

Many of Roth’s more recent pieces involve « bridge combs, » which are segments of the prismatic cells that flow past the artist’s designated areas. As shown in « Beaded Circles, Indigo » these constructions add more dimension and visual intrigue to compositions as they billow and rise above the base. The completed works convey a « tension between control and wilderness » that Roth sees as a metaphorical blueprint for the future. She explains:

Emphasizing this tension seems key because the project is fundamentally about exploring the boundaries of human beings’ relationship with the natural environment… I hope these pieces are a visual representation of what that balance might look like, as we set moderate limits to the control and simultaneously allow ourselves to fall in love with a greater degree of wilderness.

Roth is represented by Wall space gallery in Ottawa and has some new jobs available, which you can find at his site AND Instagram.

« Beaded Circles, Indigo », encaustic, Japanese paper, embroidery thread, glass beads, natural honeycomb, local Ontario maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches

Detail of « Beaded Circles, Indigo », encaustic, Japanese paper, embroidery thread, glass beads, natural honeycomb, local Ontario maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches

« Gold Honeycomb Ring with Flowers », encaustic, Japanese paper, gold leaf, embroidery thread, natural honeycomb, local Ontario maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches

Detail of « Gold Honeycomb Ring with Flowers », encaustic, Japanese paper, gold leaf, embroidery thread, natural honeycomb, Ontario local maple frame, 17.5 x 17, 5 inches

« Beaded Circles, Taupe », encaustic, Japanese paper, gold leaf, embroidery thread, glass beads, natural honeycomb, local Ontario maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches

Detail of « Beaded Circles, Dove Grey », encaustic, Japanese paper, gold leaf, embroidery thread, glass beads, natural honeycomb, local Ontario maple frame, 17.5 x 17.5 inches

#Ava Roth #beads #bees #embroidery #encaustic

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