Ruth Marsh is a multidisciplinary artist based out of Halifax, NS. Her work uses absurd and often comically deadpan narratives to address loss, absence and longing in the context of living creatures and the natural world. She is interested in investigating themes of environmental loss through labour intensive meditations on transformation: life to death, experience to memory and the surrealistic degradation of information that occurs with each successive change of state.
In this episode, we talk about her work repairing bees. She creates these labor-intensive repairs using found objects, and uses exhibitions of the work to bring together people from the scientific and art community.
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“I am hoping that when someone sees an individual bee that has been repaired with so much care that they can build an empathetic relationship with a creature that might not necessarily be seen as an individual and not necessarily relatable to in a human way.” – Ruth Marsh
Show Notes:
- How Ruth creates her work and why
- Why people send her bees in the mail
- About her stop-motion video with the bees she repairs
- How her work showcases the diversity of bees
- The distinct rolls that scientists and artists can take in engaging people around issues in pollinator health
- What it’s like to see one of Ruth’s exhibitions
- The importance of amateur scientists
- How to taxidermy a bee
- How artists can be activist for change
“There seems to be a really strong grassroots movement making people aware of issues faced by pollinators, so there’s a more hopeful aspect to my work.” – Ruth Marsh
Links Mentioned:
- Ruth Marsh’s website
- Ruth’s Facebook page: May I Have Your Bees Please?
- Bee taxidermy video
- 03 Dr. Joseph Wilson – The Bees in Your Backyard
- 04 Dr. David Lowenstein – Wild Pollinators in Urban Areas
- Aganetha Dyck
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Book: Rudolf Steiner’s Bees (CW 351)
- Bee: Bombus impatiens