aganetha dyck at DeLeon White Gallery (1096 Queen West) to November 3. 416-597-9466. Rating: NNNNN
braille dots interspersed with raised lumps of wax laid down by bees typify the beeswax-encrusted drawings and objects that make up Aganetha Dyck’s Inter Species Communication Attempt. Dyck has been collaborating with bees — or at least placing objects like shoes, baseballs or a wedding dress into active hives as part of her art-making practice — for almost 20 years. The results have always been baffling and beautiful, but never more so than now, when the artist is actually trying to discover if she can communicate with the honey-making insects.
She first experimented with Braille in response to the lumps of wax bees use in what seems to be a written form of communication among themselves — a phenomenon that isn’t quite as well known as the fact that bees also relay information through dance.
The work is obsessive, romantic, provocative and steeped in the sweet smell of mystery. Just as Dyck’s art responds to the bees, they seem to be shifting in the way they respond to her attempts to communicate.
