Where is the rain when the flowers bloom

2022

Video 5min, old beehives, hives, beeswax, beekeeping tools, etc.

Some beekeepers travel from region to region each year with their hives and daily tools, following the flowering seasons of different plants so their bees can gather nectar. It is a nomadic form of labor shaped by roads, seasons, and blooming cycles. In a remote mountainous area of Guangdong, China, I came across a beekeeper’s tent. I was told that the beekeeper had died there in an accident two years earlier. Yet inside the old hives, a small number of bees had continued to survive and reproduce.

As the COVID-19 pandemic persisted for several years, transportation controls and restrictions on cross-regional movement severely affected the migration routes of independent beekeepers, making this livelihood—already dependent on constant mobility—even more fragile. At the same time, climate change, deadly fungi, and parasites have further increased the risk of bee mortality.

From the neglected hives, I collected damaged honeycombs and beeswax, and took several beekeeping tools from the tent. Using these materials, I made a small shelter and a candle. I imagined the shelter offering protection from wind and rain for both humans and bees, while the candle might provide more than light and warmth alone.