Yorkton artist's Lego model generating new buzz

YORKTON -

When Kelly Litzenberger first built a Lego model of his shop, he had no idea it would become a buzzing attraction.

The original version of the model was built for an art exhibition in 2017, before it found new life with the help of some bees.

“Last year I re-developed the model so that it would be more inviting for the bees to add their honeycomb and the honey to the model and make it their own as well,” Litzenberger said.

Located at the Godfrey Dean Art Gallery in Yorkton, the project was initially proposed by the Art Gallery of Regina.

Called “Between Us”, the exhibition is curated by Sandy Moore and run by Canadian artist Aganetha Dyck, who worked with 12 artists across Saskatchewan to mix their work with bees.

"Our part in this is to bring people in Yorkton [like] local artists and beekeepers into this larger project that the Art Gallery of Regina has developed,” said Jeff Morton, director of the Godfrey Dean Art Gallery.

Morton added that the honeycombs give the model a unique presence.

“It just looks so bizarre. You get this sense of time passing even though it's just one season,” said Morton. “If you think about this as like a giant, you know, a proper size building. What that would represent is just like out of this world.”

The model initially had 2200 pieces of Lego and took more than 40 hours to build.

It was placed in a beehive so the insects could get to work on the delicate process.

“It is not something that the bees would naturally build upon. But with a little bit of tasting with some beeswax, you can melt that and spread it on parts of the model,” said Litzenberger. “The smells and stuff of the beeswax will attract them to build, but of course the bees won't always build where you want them to.”

Litzenberger adds it was unique to watch the bees work inside of the model.

“The mindset behind this was this is a model of a building that I used to work in. And now I made it a model for bees to work,” said Litzenberger. “So it was a really cool collaborative effort between me and nature.”

To bee or not to bee, this project deserves a hive five.