Esther Solondz, a past Flint & Steel Resident, designed and installed The Bee Palace to house solitary bees at the Audubon Zoo.

Artist Joseph Beuys famously declared that “every man is an artist,” and that “even the act of peeling a potato can be a work of art if it is a conscious act.” He suggests that societal evolution will result from the conscious investment of craftsmanship and artistry into the most banal of tasks. Solondz’s Bee Palace embodies this sentiment (albeit in a flashier, less banal manner) in that she transforms a bee hive—ordinarily housed in a structure resembling a wooden cabinet—into a towering ziggurat for passing pollinators. The Bee Palace pays homage to humanity’s oneness with one of its most miniature counterparts. If the artistry of Solondz’s functional structure can inspire the kind of awe my friend from the concession stand experienced, then perhaps it can convince others, too, that the plight of the bees is in fact our own. Click here to read the full article.