Telling the Bees

Created in honor of my dear friend and writing mentor, Dr. Thomas F. Wilson, this short video piece was inspired by Laura Marris' essay, Vertical Time, wherein she traces her father's original cross-country trip to her childhood home after his death, using photos and postcards taken during his journey, and John Berger's concept of "home" as existing at the intersection of "horizontal time": our current-day journeys, and "vertical time": our deeper ancestral connections and shared connection to the earth. I have interpreted these ideas through the metaphor of "telling the bees": the folk tradition of informing one's beehives about important events in the life of the family, including marriages, births, and deaths, so the bees could then inform one's deceased ancestors as well. This tradition grew from the belief that bees were capable of traveling between the worlds of the living and the dead, and as such they are often depicted on tombstones and formally "invited" to attend funerals. 

Drawing from these inspirations, I explore time, memory, and interpersonal communication and connection by weaving together a voicemail I received from Thomas, my artistic "ancestor", as he relates a story about his own interaction with bees while living on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts (which he long considered his home), alongside photographs of my own trip to the island, taken shortly before his death. Superimposed over the photographs is the image of a small, darting bee, whose movements were directly determined using a classmate's hand-drawn translation of my own body's movements as I pushed, pulled, and slid my way across an extended roll of paper, unfurled across a large room. The movement of the bee thus exists at the intersection of my "horizontal time", representing my physical movement and current-day communication and connection to others, and the "vertical time" of my own journey to that very room itself, my transition from a career in engineering to the study of art and writing, in which Thomas played an integral part. 

Basing the bee's movements on my own body is thus a reminder of the many ways I continue to carry Thomas and his memories within my body and my work, how I have become his continuation through my life and writing, and also symbolizes my ongoing communication with Thomas as he continues to serve as my inspiration: this bee traveling across time and space, between life and death, informing Thomas of my ongoing creative journeys.