Twin Hives are part of an ongoing series exploring the ever-increasing impact of urbanisation and the climate crisis on our environment and specifically, the threat placed on native bees across Aotearoa and Australia. Forming part of a greater installation suggesting hives and tunnels — real and imagined — this work brings together Scott’s interest in object making, adornment and natural insect formations to speculate hybrid-form habitats that might emerge from the shells of what is lost.

Taarn Scott is an artist from Ōtepoti, based in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland. Their practice is multidisciplinary and often collaborative, creating tactile objects informed by ornamentation and jewellery, with forms that speak to ideas around habitat, environmental concerns and geographical histories. They are currently researching insect habitats and working with wax, clay and metal. Scott’s recent projects include Let the Honey Soak Through, in collaboration with Hana Pera Aoake at Te Atamira and Somewhere Between Abundance exhibited in Naarm through West Space & in Ōtepoti through Slant Art Project Space with the support of CNZ.