March 12 - May 2, 2015

Sarah Hatton – Bee Works

Visual Voice Gallery is delighted to present the works of Outaouais artist Sarah Hatton. Hatton raises awareness of the link between neonicotinoid pesticides and the worldwide decline of bee populations by arranging dead bees in vertigo-inducing mathematical patterns symbolically linked to monoculture crops, such as the Fibonacci spiral found in the seed pattern of the sunflower bloom. 
Florid places 500 dead bees in the same seed arrangement found on the seed head of a sunflower. The pattern follows the Fibonacci curve - a sequence found in many spiral arrangements in nature, and one that produces a repetitive, destabilizing visual effect when you stand in front of it.   The disorientation that the viewer feels in the swarm pattern of the sunflower echoes the bees' loss of ability to navigate due to the toxins held within the very thing that provides their sustenance. 

Sarah Hatton was born in the UK, and raised in Barbados and Canada.
She received her BFA from Queen’s University and her MFA from the University of Calgary, and is the recipient of numerous awards for art and academics.
Her deep interest in human nature, mortality, patterns, and her insatiable curiosity about the natural world are found throughout her paintings and installation work. Her “Bee Works”, made from thousands of dead honeybees, received international acclaim, balancing artistry with advocacy, and winning the RBC Emerging Artist Award in 2014.
Hatton lives and works in Chelsea, Quebec, one of Canada’s most creative and environmentally-friendly communities.