Artists and bees have plenty in common: buzzing from place to place, collecting the nectar of inspiration and sharing it with the next person they meet or place they alight, enriching the community as a whole. The UCF Art Gallery has been host for the past month to Progeny, a sculptural sound installation that plays directly on those ideas of community interaction as artistic practice. Modeled after the interior of a standard modern beehive – not the rounded dome you see in picture books, but a boxy structure stacked with frames that the bees fill with wax and honey – the installation consists of several 9-foot-tall acoustic partitions packed with hidden microphones and speakers, which pick up and reflect back audience and environmental sound, creating a “complex sonic landscape.” As viewers wander through the enormous structure, they signal and observe in equal measure. Local painter Bryce Hammond met composer Luke Aaron Clark at an Atlantic Center for the Arts residency, where they came up with the concept of a collaborative work based around the ways apiculture reflects human society. The result stands here for visitors to explore, and the artists will discuss the work at the closing reception tonight. Those so moved may return Friday for the very last day of the exhibition; at 7 p.m. UCF assistant professor of music Thad Anderson and a group of UCF percussionists perform John Cage’s Four4 “hive” in concert.
artist talk, 4 p.m.; reception, 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25 | UCF Art Gallery, Visual Arts Building, 12400 Aquarius Agora Drive | gallery.cah.ucf.edu | free
artist talk, 4 p.m.; reception, 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25 | UCF Art Gallery, Visual Arts Building, 12400 Aquarius Agora Drive | gallery.cah.ucf.edu | free
