Calling (To the Bees) I

Sarkis’ works deal with concepts of memory and time by way of materials which take their cue from art history or daily life, and the artist’s own life story. Presenting a cultural and historical accumulation to the exploration of the audience through objects, sounds, images, and scenes, the artist seeks out ways of carrying this accumulation into the future. The installations he has created since the 1980s establish a strong dialogue with the architecture, history and memory of the space. In these installations, Sarkis who acts with objects and events belonging to his own past and to the common history of humanity allows the objects positioned within the exhibition space to re-emerge in a different context and initiate their own dialogues and experiences.

"Calling (To the Bees) I" is a work Sarkis has produced in the context of his exhibition "İkiz | Twin", which took place in Gallery Manâ in 2013. Consisting of a bell and a honeycomb embedded in a copper chamber, the work expands into the space with the sound and vibration from the periodic rise and fall of the bell suspended from the ceiling. While honey – treated by Sarkis as a symbolically multi-layered material – stands out with its naturalness and vitality, the honeycombs embody a perfect order. Sarkis’ call to the bees figuratively invites nature into a cultural space. The work can also be read in the context of the “extinction of bees”, indicating a current ecological disaster.