David Pettibone

Region: Northeast

My current work explores the beekeeping industry—the honey harvest, monoculture pollination, our efforts to fight the diseases that threaten the honeybee, and our complex relationship with the insect. I see this body of work as documentary. Though each painting accurately describes the details of a particular aspect of the industry, the totality lies far beyond a survey of beekeeping. Instead, a process as routine as the pollination of a walnut orchard becomes a chimerical act that will throw into doubt the viewer’s understanding of what is normal and what is abnormal in our relationship to the natural world.