Parts of Being Wholly
March 2013
Artist: Rebecca Hamlin Green
Artist’s statement:
“Using traditional sculptural elements and unexpected materials, my work examines elements of social and personal identity through what I call the domestic identity- how we define ourselves through how we live, where we come from, and the structures we erect and exist within to maintain a sense of place. “Structure” includes actual spaces such as buildings and homes, but also includes relationships, routines, and traditions. My work explores domestic structure in both nature and the home. As honeybees are arguably one of the most domestic of wild animals, their home structure, the hive, provides a beautiful and complicated framework for concepts about our own domestic identities. Hives are built, destroyed, and built again by generations of bees infusing endless cycles of birth, death, and memory in wax and honey. Parts of Being Wholly is my own attempt at creating hives by layering wax and honeycomb into drop-like shapes and suspending them in nylon casings. The shape and physical weight of each hive signifies the emotional weight of the many individual memories, traditions and structures that make up the domestic identity as a whole.”