with Erin Kirwin, Denison Art Space in Newark, Newark, OH
HIVE was a four-month collaborative residency and evolving installation by Michael Stickrod and Erin Kirwin at Denison Art Space in Newark. Built with materials gathered from the woods and wild areas of Licking County, the project brought fallen trees, clay, beeswax, medicinal plants, sound, video, and handmade objects into a space that functioned as both an installation and a gathering place. At its center was a tea bar serving locally gathered plants and honey, where visitors were invited to sit, talk, and record dreams and memories connected to the woods. These encounters became part of an evolving video work made over the course of the residency.
The project grew through collaborations with Denison students, faculty, visiting artists, and the surrounding community, moving between art, music, writing, ecology, performance, and wellness. Among these collaborations was work with Denison’s composition program and Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion, then beginning its residency at Denison. Rather than arriving as a finished exhibition, HIVE changed throughout its four months as people, materials, conversations, sounds, and stories accumulated within it.
Storefront view of HIVE, Denison Art Space in Newark, 2019. Photo by: Mae TaylorThe HIVE tea bar during the residency, with reel-to-reel recording station and locally gathered herbal teas. Photo by: Mae TaylorTea service detail with collected mugs, locally gathered plants, and handmade warming stands. Photo by: Mae TaylorErin Kirwin preparing herbal tea during an open tea gathering at HIVE. Photo by: Mae TaylorPreparing tea at the communal tea bar during an open gathering. Photo by: Mae TaylorVisitors gathering for tea and conversation at HIVE. Photo by: Mae TaylorMichael Stickrod with visitors at the tea bar. Stories and recollections shared during the gatherings were recorded as part of the project. Photo by: Mae TaylorErin Kirwin gathering plants in the fields and woods surrounding the artists’ home in Licking County, Ohio, for a video made for the residency’s final exhibition.Third Coast Percussion working in the woods during their residency at Denison, extending the collaboration between sound, landscape, and found materials.Installation detail with beeswax sculpture and other works developed during the four-month residency.Installation view of HIVE, Denison Art Space in Newark, 2019–2020.Installation view of the video developed from plant-gathering excursions and stories recorded during HIVE’s tea gatherings, with participants’ spoken recollections edited into on-screen text.
