Last Day to View Live Beehive Sculpture at the MoMA

Today is the last day to visit Pierre Huyghe's Untitled (Reclining Nude) at the Museum of Modern Art. I went on Monday to see this sculpture in person and it is a beauty. The sculpture is located in the sculpture garden on the first floor of the museum. I love the sculpture garden, it's a great place to get a cup of coffee and just soak in the art around you.

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Aug 18, 2015 at 11:03pm PDT

I loved this sign that they had on the door right before you enter the sculpture garden. I must say, the beekeeper in me got super excited to see the colony!

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Aug 18, 2015 at 8:42am PDT

The live colony of bees is meant to be the women's head and brain. The hive and sculpture is placed under a tree in the center of the garden. Can you see it? Look closely. The tree really hid it well, if it wasn't for the sign on the door, I would imagine some people would have missed this piece all together because you couldn't really tell there was a beehive under the tree unless you were looking for it.

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Aug 17, 2015 at 11:24am PDT

Here is a closer view of it. The bees were so calm. There were a few flying around but mostly they were tending to the hive. I am so proud of the MoMA for taking the initiative of having a live bee colony on the premises of the museum's garden where visitors can see it up close and personal. In an urban environment like New York City, it's difficult to see a beehive this up close unless you know a beekeeper or know where beehives are located. As a beekeeper in Brooklyn, I have had many people complain about my bees being in close proximity to neighbors and the street. But honeybees for the most part are very docile. I know that some people are allergic to bee sting so it does concern certain people. However, honeybees won't sting you unless they feel like the hive is being threatened in any way, so as long as you keep a good distance away from the hive, they won't go after you.

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Aug 17, 2015 at 12:29pm PDT

Here is a closer look of the sculpture. I was so impressed by it. It really is so beautiful how the honeybees created the wax comb as a perfect oblong head. It was beautiful. I wish this piece could be a permanent sculpture at the museum. See it today, it's the last day! Here is a link about the sculpture.

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Aug 17, 2015 at 1:53pm PDT

Making Beeswax Candles

All year, I've been collecting wild beeswax from the hive. Especially when they build comb like this. Bees build wild wax like this when there is too much space between frames or open space inside the hive.

Here is an example of when bees build wild comb. This is the underside of the water sugar feeder. The bees built some wax below it.

And some wax above the frames. The water sugar feeder sits on top of the top box, and the bees built a bunch of wax to try to close up the gaps.

When we extracted honey from the frames, there is lots of wax left behind. I collected all this wax too.

Why am I collecting all this beeswax??? To make candles!!
I melted all the wax on a double boiler.

And poured them into molds to make votive candles! This was my first time making votive candles. And it's super fun! I added some vanilla scent.

Here are the candles out of the mold! The white color candles are pure beeswax from the honey extraction. The darker candles is the wax that I collected throughout the year and sometimes there are impurities in the wax, especially propolis, thus the darker color wax.

I poured some wax in metal tins as well. I love how this came out.

And here it is lit. I thought I collected a lot of wax, but it only made 7 little candles. Hahahahhaha. Guess I have to collect more wax!