TOMAS LIBERTINY

During my visit of The National Archaeological Museum of Athens about a decase ago, I saw for the first time 5000 years old marble idols from Cycladic period. The stylistic beauty and simplicity have rendered me awestruck. I felt the weathered appearance and rounded forms could have been a result of a force of nature, just like pebbles in a river. Most of the marble artworks from this period c. 3300 to 1100 BCE are of female figures or female heads. As with bees, whose identity is to large extend female, this was a peculiar finding. Many experts agree that these Cycladian idols are representative of a Great Goddess of nature, in a tradition continuous with that of Neolithic female figures such as the Venus of Willendorf.

The “made by bees” sculpture is build around hand-made branch framework departing from my previous 3D printed foundations. The rough form of the mould leaves much of the interpretion to what the portrait should look like to mother nature - the colony of honeybees themselves. The result is strangely robust but gentle human face.