Toby Bowles: Holes and Bees

Toby is one of our third year students. Talking about his work, Toby says:

“I am intrigued by decay and the beauty created by abandonment, like the shell of a vacant bees nest left entangled in tree branches. The point of interest for me is when these structures are exposed, leaving behind fascinating forms. I have been exploring ways to show this using steel and creating sculptural forms inspired by nature’s course”.

Toby has been exploring how to make an equivalent to natural structures like honeycomb in forged steel , as well as exploring decay through burning the steel.

Thinking of permanence and impermanence, he recently struck on an idea- what if actual bees added to the objects? What if he took some of his forged objects and placed them in a hive? Would the bees use his object as an anchor for building a new layer of honeycomb? Would they cover the steel in honeycomb? There was only one way to find out so after a number of phone calls he managed to find someone who would be prepared to leave his steel objects in a hive for several weeks.

The objects are transformed. Now the challenge for Toby is to reflect and evaluate how the honeycomb has altered the objects .

Del