A Love That Bears No Fruit
Biosphere 2
Oracle, Arizona
August 13 - 27th 2017
A Love That Bears No Fruit was a solo exhibition by Lee Pivnik that resulted from a two-month residency at Biosphere 2, during the summer of 2017.
Biosphere 2 is a sprawling closed ecological research facility in Arizona, originally built in the late 1980s as an experiment to test whether humans could live in a self-sustaining environment, potentially for space colonization. It housed a team of scientists inside a sealed, 3.14 acre glass and steel structure that contained various biomes, including a rainforest, ocean, savanna, and desert. Today, Biosphere 2 is a research and education center focused on studying climate change and ecosystem dynamics.
In his exhibition, Lee Pivnik, who was working as an artist in residence at Biosphere 2, explores the facility’s legacy as a model for human survival while questioning the role of other species in that system. His work reflects on the unintended consequences of human-centric design, specifically the collapse of pollinators inside Biosphere 2 during the original experiment, when UV-blocking glass disrupted the navigation of bees and hummingbirds. Using cyanotype processes and photochromic pigments embedded in beeswax, Pivnik created works from UV sensitive processes, and fragile wax sculptures that melted and distorted throughout the run of the show.
Full exhibition documentation is available on Artviewer.