The 20,000 identified species of bee alive at the moment are the product of 120 million years of evolution. They’re very important to our planet’s ecosystems and to human existence. However their populations are dwindling. Award-winning artist and sculptor Wolfgang Buttress is understood for creating multi-sensory artworks that take inspiration from our evolving relationship with nature, and his newest exhibition, Bees: A Story of Survival, fuses artwork, science and expertise to attract guests into the world of a bee. Utilizing cutting-edge audio-visual expertise, the exhibition takes guests on a journey via immersive rooms as sights, scents and sounds carry our world to life from a bee’s perspective. Sound performs a significant position on this exhibition. Martin Bencsik at Nottingham Trent College, UK, who researches how bees talk, acted as Buttress’s scientific collaborator, contributing to the soundscape that connects guests to a reside beehive. This soundscape continuously adjustments in response to the exercise of the colony. “If the bees are wholesome, it means the world is wholesome, and sadly that’s not the case,” says Buttress. He hopes that these fascinating installations will improve our appreciation for bees and increase our concern for his or her welfare and that of our planet.

Bees: A Story of Survival is at World Museum, Liverpool, UK, till 5 Might 2025