Repopulation involves the construction of habitats for wild bees that initially put an emphasis on emptiness and absence. My work on this theme has led me to think about the architecture of bee hives and shelters and how they, when abandoned, just like residential neighbourhoods, can become ghost towns. In a bee yard, colony collapse could be compared to 40,000 to 4 million people suddenly vanishing from their homes.
Repopulation will also eventually entail bringing the shelters and the ghost hives back outside to be populated.
The first step for this initiative was the submission of a plan, in collaboration with Jess Dixon, to the Bee House Lab competition launched by the University of Manitoba. Our submission got an honorable mention.
I was also inspired by Lori Weidenhammer and her incredible work to pay more attention to bee friendly plants and the wild bees that frequent them. This became an important part of my summer during which I became acquainted with, and photographed, many kinds of native bees.
