Confluence:

A meeting place, where streams gather to flow into one.

I traveled to Japan to challenge how I see.

To compare the way in which I grew up interpreting nature and society with another culture’s.

Sitting in the backyard of a beekeeper, he taught me how to make a ‘hachi-yado’: a sculpture that functions as a nesting place for solitary bees. These bees are vital pollinators, which have been under threat due to deforestation.

Across Japan, he led workshops, with schools and communities, teaching how to build these sculptures.

To challenge a society of taking. Encouraging giving, through creating.

He wanted this art-form to be shared, encouraging a collective meeting and social consciousness. I am supporting him and the mission of using art as a method of environmental conservation and cultural awareness.

Collaborating with Japan’s Bee Forest Club has meant facilitating gatherings of shared reflection and co-creating, with nature and each other.

Oscillation

Gathering at the Deering Estate Museum, we spoke about cyclical nature. How do cycles of life teach us about our shared responsibility?

Can we give back to the forests that constantly give to us?

While sitting in a circle, we shared stories about our relationship to the environment and art. Then we began creating.

Made by wrapping together locally harvested reeds with twine, the hachi-yado sculptures are evidence that giving back to nature doesn’t have to be complex.