“Imagine if we could see the world from another creature’s perspective. Would that change how we see our place in the universe?”, asks Wolfgang Buttress, the award-winning artist behind Bees: A Story of Survival – an immersive experience that takes you into the heart of a hive.
Developed in collaboration with National Museums Liverpool, Buttress – who has created installations for Greenpeace and Royal Botanic Gardens Kew – has now transformed the second floor of World Museum Liverpool into an interactive, multi-sensory space that lets us take a bee’s eye view of our planet, allowing us to see, hear, touch, and smell their vanishing world.
Rooted in melittology, or the scientific study of bees, we discover how bees have endured, even in environments as harsh as sun-baked deserts, since the dinosaurs walked the earth.
But although they have thrived for 120 million years, their existence is now precarious, threatened by the ecological crisis we have created due to unsustainable practices such as industrial farming, the use of pesticides, and the decimation of our wildflower meadows.
In the UK, only 3% of our meadows remain. This is devastating for bees because an area of land smaller than a football field could provide thousands of them with vital pollen and nectar. What is staggering is that we have wrought this destruction in less than 100 years.
As green spaces have plummeted, so have bee populations, with many species now rare or endangered, but the irony is that three quarters of our food crops rely on tiny pollinators.
In a behind the scenes video exploring the making of the exhibition, we discover there is a sting in the tale. Bees can be viewed as “the canary in the mine,” Buttress tells us—and so the story of bees, and how their story might end, serves as a warning to us.
Although the message that underpins this powerful exhibition is a serious one, there is hope—and this experience does not feel heavy, but instead profoundly transporting.
Throughout, Buttress inspires us with the sweetest dose of wonder, and as we enter the dimly-lit hive, our senses buzz as we listen to thousands of bees singing in a “choir” – an otherworldly soundscape, recorded by Karman Line Collective, that forms the audio backdrop as we wander through the world of bees.
Following the “pollen trail,” we discover fascinating facts about bees, such as bee communication and memory – and are often awestruck by what we find. For example, thanks to research by Professor Lars Chittka, we learn that on a bee’s first flight, it creates a foraging mind map that it will use for the rest of its life.
We are filled with the desire to save our bees, and a range of experts share the ways in which we can help, such as planting pollinator-friendly blooms – and we hear, too, from a child who tells us that their primary school, All Saints in Anfield, Liverpool is devoted to creating positive change, working with the Scouse Flowerhouse and National Wildflower Centre to rewild “unloved bits of land by sowing wildflower meadows”.
By seeing the world from the perspective of a bee, we discover how our existence is bound with their survival. Bees is an unmissable experience for anyone interested in entomology, or the scientific study of insects, as well as bee lovers, environmentalists, and ordinary folk who need a reminder that the smallest things can make the biggest impact.
Exhibition runs until 28 September 2025.
For information on prices and how to book tickets visit https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/whatson/world-museum/exhibition/bees-story-of-survival#section–the-exhibition
For access information to help you prepare for your visit, you will find an audio description and a visual story of the exhibition, plus a sensory map detailing “where visitors can expect vibrations, dark areas, strobe lighting, reflective surfaces, loud soundscapes, flashing lights, scented interactives and motion capture”, and times and dates of relaxed sessions when “the audio-visuals and capacity are reduced to allow visitors with sensory needs to enjoy the experience”: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/bees-access-info
Reviewed by R.B.L. Robinson
