The Fragile Bee: Nancy Macko at MOAH
“The Fragile Bee” was exhibited at the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, CA and is an outcry to the plight of the bees in relationship to the environment. This accompanying catalog critically examines the work in the exhibition beginning with a foreword by Andi Campognone, museum manager and curator at MOAH. Artist Nancy Macko established a garden for native bee-attracting plants in order to document them throughout the year. The resulting series of photographs, "Botanical Portraits", are the subject of the essay by museum director Kathleen Stewart Howe. Contemporary art writer and curator Carole Ann Klonarides writes in depth about Macko's videos, "Lore of the Bee Priestess" and "Bee Stories", locating the work along the continuum of video art and discussing how Macko uses digital technologies as an art form integrating computer-generated images and audio experimentation with a sociopolitical message. Curator Stephen Nowlin writes about Macko's large scale installation, "Honey Teachings: In the Mother Tongue of the Bees", a 100 panel work depicting the reaction of the bees to the insecticides and pesticides on the plants they pollinate which causes them to experience confusion and disorientation - a form of memory loss and dementia.