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Cross-pollinating the grassroots
with the Beehive Design
Collective

There is light in the Darkroom

A savior for the pathetic
American ‘moderate’ left?

 

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Cross-pollinating the grassroots with the
Beehive Design Collective

There are plenty of stings as four bees buzz through a crowded high school auditorium on a spring afternoon. The targets of the toxic barbs aren’t the audience members, nor are these busy bees of the honey-making insect variety.

These “bees,” as they are known in the widening circles of the anti-corporate globalization movement, are the “cultural workers” of the Beehive Design Collective. Their stings are reserved for the corporate, military and cultural arms of the worldwide profit-driven Empire. The four young bees, two male and two female, are swarming around these unsuspecting students and teachers that have dared to host them as part of the Beehive Collective’s “cross-pollination tour” to build grassroots resistance to corporate globalization.

It is the magic of the Beehive Collective’s popular education style, “picture-lectures,” that has left audiences abuzz throughout the country. In the auditorium on this particular afternoon, the top of a 16-foot-long poster that has been printed on recycled soda bottle fabric is tacked to the wall where it meets the ceiling. The cloth flows down gracefully, spreading onto the carpeted floor. To the right, a large, wooden contraption supports 60 separate enlargements of elements from the poster.

Four bees take turns explaining the different visual components of the intensely detailed and mostly wordless poster, soliciting questions and discussion throughout the presentation. A student commented afterward: “They show the big picture and then all the little details. That sticks in your brain a lot better than when there is a guy talking at the podium.”

Surprisingly unscathed by the poster’s “un-American sentiments,” students are often mesmerized by the intricate illustrations and passionate explanations in the Beehive Collective’s presentations. Meanwhile, many teachers appear visibly thrilled to see their students so focused on listening to a would-be boring discussion about economics and Latin American history.

The Beehive Collective’s graphics explore the many facets of colonialism, corporate invasion, ecological destruction and grassroots resistance. Pen-and-ink renditions of morphed machinery embody the technologies that threaten nature, while strikingly realistic insects are shown creatively resisting these forces and celebrating alternatives. Ants are the protagonists in much of the Beehive Collective’s work because changing society, according to a Latin American proverb cited by one of the bees, is “the work of ants” — tireless, methodical and accomplished by many nameless workers without the need for gurus or leaders.

The mission of the Beehive Collective finds expression in panoramas of complex, politically charged symbolism that combine echoes of Hieronymus Bosch and elements of Diego Rivera and the Mexican muralists. But in a major divergence from the work of these artists, humans do not appear in the Beehive Collective’s imagery. As a method to avoid creating allegories with human-centered, stereotypical or racially biased imagery, the bees instead use meticulously researched images of the flora and the fauna specific to the bioregions that their illustrations and stories represent.

Describing their own roles in the political situation they work to illuminate, the bees candidly explain, “We’re young Americans whose imagination has been clear-cut by advertising and replaced with the homogenized, racist and imperialistic images of Disney, television, video games, and junk food.”

Because of this awareness, the bees have been passionately dedicated to “getting the story straight” in their multicultural illustrations by interviewing people as close to the source of the story as possible. They have traveled to Latin America to collaborate directly with the farmers, indigenous people and others affected by the political situation that their graphics detail.

The Beehive Collective has created posters of several “free trade” blueprints for Latin America, including Plan Colombia and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). This Winter, the bees will be developing a poster about Plan Puebla Panama. They’ll be traveling by bicycle throughout southern Mexico and Central America to conduct interviews, present their graphics and collaborate with different activist groups in the region for the poster’s design. They hope to finish the graphic in time for distribution at the first Latin American Social Forum in Quito, Ecuador, in March. Following the forum, the bees will set off on a Spring tour of Ecuador and Colombia, hosted by many groups from the Andean region that are using the graphics in their own organizing work. A narrative coloring book version of this poster trilogy will be produced for use as an educational organizing tool.

Additional graphics campaigns undertaken by the Beehive Collective have addressed cultural homogenization and genetic engineering. A new poster is underway about the prison-industrial complex, which will be drawn by a team of prisoners and prison activists from the Pittsburgh-based Book’em Collective through mail correspondence during the next year.

In the three years of the Beehive Collective’s existence, more than 35,000 posters have been distributed by the bees themselves either for free or by donation, without reliance on mail order or traditional distribution routes. Attempting to live up to the busy bee metaphor, one swarm of workers recently completed a seven-month marathon tour that included 160 presentations and workshops at high schools, colleges, farmers markets, after-school programs and community centers throughout the US. At large mobilizations, members of this decentralized collective can often be spotted using their squads of bike cart “pollination units” for efficient distribution.

Copyright vs. “the Commons”

Anti-copyright is central to the Beehive Collective ethos. The bees encourage free reproduction and circulation of their graphics for nonprofit use. They maintain a lending library of large stage and street banners, while downloadable, high-resolution versions of their graphics and “clip art” are available on their website.

A bee explains, “We’re working to take the ‘who made it and how much did it cost?’ out of art. Instead, we see ourselves as ‘cultural workers’ who serve the crucial need for explanations of the complicated issues that our society faces, using more accessible formats that transcend the boundaries of language and learning styles. It’s funny, we don’t even call what we do art; we think of it as visual communication. The majority of our focus is on creating healthy, collaborative processes in which we translate what information and ideas we have solicited from others into visual tools, with the hope that they will self-replicate and take on a life of their own.”

The Biodiversity Crossroads Mural

Another image-based system that the Beehive Collective uses for conveying its messages is the ancient craft of hand-cut stone mosaics. “Throughout time, stone mosaic murals have served to illustrate history,” one of the bees points out, “however, due to its labor-intensive qualities, the craft has become extremely rare.”

Every summer, the hive hosts several mosaic apprentices who learn to create remarkable detail through contour and grout lines, even conveying the textures of fur, feathers and scales on the creatures they create. Mosaics have the fascinating ability to communicate the vast orchestra of detail between the microcosm and the macrocosm, helping to convey the complexity of biodiversity in an engaging, memorable way.

The Biodiversity Crossroads Mural will be a large-scale mosaic mural using images of giant insects and plants to illustrate the history of modern agriculture, its current pressures, and potential futures. This 400-square-foot design, which the Beehive Collective estimates will take eight years to build, will be permanently installed throughout the exhibition hall floor of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association fairgrounds. The fairgrounds receive more than 60,000 visitors per year during the “Common Ground Fair.” The project is also a creative re-use of waste: “We prioritize the use of recycled materials, excavating much of our stone from the small mountains of waste found behind countertop fabricators.”

This is much more than a mural project: as with the Beehive Collective’s other graphics campaigns, the design will weave together the stories and requests of many collaborators throughout the multi-year process. It will also help to generate and distribute more public domain images for use in the struggle against industrial agriculture.

“Mosaics inspire a sense of permanence, outlasting lost civilizations and fallen empires... things we think more of us should be contemplatin’ hard the way the world’s going” a bee insists. Or as one seven year old that the bees recently met at an event summed up, “Ohhh! I get it! It’s all in bugs so that the cockroaches will know what happened when they dig it up in 2,000 years! It’s like insect hieroglyphics!”

The Machias Valley Grange: “The Hive”

This year, the Beehive Collective plans to complete its renovation of the historic Machias Valley Grange Hall in eastern Maine, in time for its 100th anniversary. In 2001, the bees purchased the hall to act as a workspace and community-organizing center. The grange movement, and outgrowth of the populist movement in the late 19th century, aimed to keep agriculture local, create farmer co-ops and hold off the pressures of the corporate monopolies, known in those days as the “robber barons.”

“The legacy of this energy is very much present in the building and often gives us chills, “ a bee explains excitedly. “This history, like much of the amazing labor movements of that time, has been ignored by textbooks, stolen from our collective consciousness and is what stokes our fires for the huge mosaic mural project we are undertaking!”

Since moving in, the Beehive Collective has become a steward for these traditions by restoring and re-opening the grange as a vibrant community space. Free weekly open-mics, concerts, dancing, films and discussion groups are also hosted in the grange.

In August 2002, a big reunion was held with the local grangers. After an 80-person, multi-generational potluck in the dining hall, elders were helped upstairs to the ballroom, where all the original furniture, props, and piano were arranged for the ritual and meeting. The bees had dug up some old grange songbooks to find anthems that would highlight their mutual politics. After a fiery speech from the grange master about how “this generation of young people fighting corporations are the care-takers of the Earth,” the crowd spent that very emotional night singing together. Grangers from all around the region and about 20 ant-archists... sigh...

Outsiders might wonder whether this group of intensely political, and often funny-lookin’, artist-activists are well received by the surrounding population of mostly poor, rural Mainers. The bees are quick to point out that their neighbors are friendly and frequently share their opinions on sustainable agriculture and globalization, because these issues are highly pertinent to the regional economy. Livelihoods in the area are almost entirely based on wildcrafting — be it lobsters, fish, clams, trees, blueberries or Christmas wreaths. Most of these industries have collapsed due to over-harvesting and international economic pressures.

As one of the bees explains, “The devastating effects of ‘free trade’ on rural Maine’s economy and environment are highly evident, and the awareness most folks have of this often makes it easy for us to connect to our neighbors on a political level. Thus far, people are excited and supportive of our endeavors.”

This support was recently demonstrated when, returning to the grange after months away on their cross-pollination tour, the bees found an anonymous note pinned to the front door bearing a simple message: “We love what you do!”

For their upcoming fall (East Coast; focused on building for the November mobilizations against the FTAA meetings in Miami) and winter (West Coast) US tours, the swarm will be traveling in their new cross-pollination unit—a diesel van converted to run on used vegetable oil. The Beehive Design Collective will be giving their “picture lectures” here in Asheville on Nov. 4 at 6pm at the Asheville Community Resource Center.

For more information, contact the Beehive Design Collective, 3 Elm St, Machias, ME 04654; (207) 255-6737; graphics@beehivecollective.org; www.beehivecollective.org.

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By Finn Finneran

(AGR)- Deep in the basement of the Park Place Office Building is a room called The Darkroom. Why such a name? Because that is precisely what it is. The Darkroom is a shared darkroom and workspace for photographers. The collectively run space has been open for the past 3 years to photographers who have limited resources to do the work they love.

The Darkroom was the brainchild of Ed Treverton, a long-time photographer, who decided to turn the private space in his moldy and small basement into a shared darkroom space at the Park Place Office Building, located in downtown Asheville off of Charlotte Street at 70 Woodfin Place. The endeavor began with Treverton and two other people utilizing the space. Since then, the number of people using the space has fluctuated. The Darkroom now has a membership of four people. The responsibilities of the collective members include covering a fee of $45 a month or $100 every three months to pay for rent and utilities and to provide their own paper and chemicals. The perks of the membership include 24/7 access to the workspace and darkroom, 35mm to 4x5 equipment, and the ability to make prints as large as 16x20.

In a day and age where creating art is limited to those who can afford the materials or spare the space in their homes, working cooperatively, as the folks at The Darkroom have done, sometimes becomes the difference between someone doing their art or not doing their art. “It inspires me to do more work because now I have the space. I am shooting more than I have in the past.” Treverton says.

This Saturday, Oct. 25, The Darkroom will host their bi-annual open house 6-9pm in The Darkroom (that’s room number 8 in the basement of the Park Place Office Building). If interested in learning more about The Darkroom or becoming a member, contact Ed Treverton at 298-1882.

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By Jodi Rhoden

(AGR)-- Dr. George Washington Carver (c.1861-1943), African-American botanist, educator, and artist, left a profound mark on the history of the South. Through his work discovering hundreds of uses for the sweet potato, the peanut, the cowpea, and other crops, he helped post-Civil War southern farmers transition from the highly soil-depleting and labor-intensive cotton industry to one that would not only be more environmentally sustainable, but would contribute to the economic viability and food security of rural southern communities. Dr. Carver spent most of his life working at the Tuskegee institute in Alabama, making discoveries for the benefit of humanity and the earth, and repeatedly refusing offers for lucrative research positions in corporations and universities in the north. His legacy impacts Western North Carolina as well: as a result of his work for the Commission on Inter-Racial Cooperation, he helped to end segregation at Asheville’s YMCA.

His holistic approach to community and agriculture has caused many people to consider him “the first permaculturalist.”

This Saturday, Oct. 25, has been proclaimed “Dr. George Washington Carver Day” for the city of Asheville, and from 2-4pm, Dr. Carver’s life and legacy will be celebrated with a fall festival at the Edible Park adjacent to the Stephens-Lee community center. Hosted by the Bountiful Cities Project, the celebration will include: gospel music, a demonstration of composting and biodynamic preparations, a naturalist’s walk of the Park, cider pressing from apples grown at the Park, a homemade sweet potato pie and apple pie contest, dedication and naming of the Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park, a children’s sing-a-long and a planting of perennial edible flowers.

The Edible Park, originally planted by City Seeds five years ago, is the first permaculture-based edible park in the country. Planted with over 30 varieties of fruit trees and bushes, it provides an abundance of fresh fruit through the growing season for all to enjoy. The Bountiful Cities Project, an Asheville-based urban gardening and sustainability organization, maintains the Park, and organizes events and educational workshops in the Park throughout the year.

Additionally, two books will be on sale as a fundraiser for the Bountiful Cities Project: Carver: A Life in Poems, by Marilyn Nelson, and The Man Who Talks with the Flowers, by Glen Clark. Nelson’s book is available for $15.00 and Clark’s for $5.00. In case of rain, the gathering will take place inside the Stephens-Lee Recreation Center.

The GWC Edible Park is located adjacent to the Stephens-Lee community center, on Max Street, off of Charlotte, towards Martin Luther King Drive. By foot, take the pedestrian bridge from City-County Plaza over Charlotte Street. For more information, call the Bountiful Cities Project at 257-4000.

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