WAKEFIELD, UK.- Yorkshire Sculpture Park presents Chatwin:Martin
‘Every third mouthful...’, on view through March 4, 2007. The title of this fascinating exhibition, which amalgamates science and art, comes from the assertion that ‘Every third mouthful of food we eat is dependent upon the unmanaged pollination services of bees’.* The art partnership, Peter Chatwin and Pamela Martin, have created a series of works that explore this globally important subject and in so doing they highlight the importance of biodiversity upon our food supply. The exhibition features works from six groups: In the field; Superbee and the Sixth Mass Extinction; Every third mouthful…; Tarts; Hotspot; Bee Wrangling.

Wild indigenous bees are key indicators of habitat health and the decline in the global bee population is both a sign of habitat degradation, and a serious threat to global food supply. Chatwin:Martin’s work communicates these issues and is a call for sustainability within the developed and developing worlds. In conveying their enthusiasm and curiosity about the natural world, they emphasise their passion for this most important and enthralling of unseen workers within our food production.

Working with world-renowned entomologists, the work in the studio has developed through exchanges of artistic and scientific recording in the field, visual information, and notation. Chatwin:Martin’s aim has been to assimilate their artistic practice with scientific enquiry. The largest wall panels in the exhibition are made from thin wood veneer which the artists dye with dense colour. These are layered with words and images that are worked back to reveal strata of colour, texture and meaning; works that are filled with optimism. Paired with some of these richly coloured works are monochrome mirror-images that are both literally and figuratively negative. In addition to woodveneer panels, are a number of photographic works that combine text with images from study trips in southern Italy, the UK and in Arizona. In particular they feature Chatwin:Martin’s co-collaborators, entomologists Christopher O’Toole and Steve Buchmann, together with words that have extended meaning within the context of bees and their impact on the wider world.