hum of the blue hive
in “Tending the Wild” exhibit

Dr. Roewan Crowe's short experimental video, hum of the blue hive, will be shown as part of the group show, Tending the Wild. Step into the poetic, pixelated world of hum of the blue hive. Inspired by Derek Jarman’s experimental film Blue, join the narrator V., as they fall into a wonderous, multispecies, multisensory world, accompanied by the sounds of dreams falling apart and liveliness in the garden. After being in the presence of the borage plant at every stage of its life to watch it sprout, grow, bud, bloom, seed itself and die; and to watch the humble bumble bee release pollen; V. comes to explore queer biomimicry for vegetal relations; co-becoming, entangled in pleasingly strange encounters. Entranced by the soundscape, the artist makes oddkin with the borage plant, a bumblebee, and Jarman who has asked similar questions, thought similar thoughts, wondered similar wonder in the space of their garden. Transformed through the mesmerizing hum of the blue hive, V. embodies her desire to be unbearably, impossibly, close to the borage plant, the bumble bee, and Jarman.

The exhibition is curated by Hannah Godfrey at the Buhler Gallery.

From Hannah Godfrey, the curator at the Buhler Gallery: "In this work Roewan has videoed flowers in her garden and then pixelated them. The effect not only simplifies their colours but transforms the flowers' movement into small individuated flickering that has insect-like rapidity. Abstracting their garden in this way removes it from the specifics of its place and time; this amplifies Roewan's desire to connect with another gardener and artist, Derek Jarman, who tended to his flowers on the salt-blown pebble beach of Dungenness in England. His garden became a symbol of resistance and defiance at the end of his life when his health was deteriorating. A fierce activist for gay rights, he was instrumental for taking the fight for compassion and getting resources for people living with HIV and AIDS to the mainstream. The poem Roewan wrote and recites is a love letter to a fellow queer artist and to queer experience. The occasional blue screens that appear in Roewan's video are a reference to Blue, a film Jarman made when illness had blinded him. Instead of laying cut flowers on his grave Roewan makes an offering of their garden and her art that will live in the same digital realm as one of Jarman's most poignant works."

Artists in the exhibition include Aganetha Dyck, Arefeh Zamani, Bev Pike, Bret Parenteau, Connie Chappel, Cullen Bingeman, Derek Dunlop, Erin Frances Brown, Jack Lauder, Justin Bear L’Arrivee, Leah Decter, Leona Herzog, Mandy Malazdrewich, Meganelizabeth Diamond, Roewan Crowe, Theo Pelmus, Toludare Toluwalope, Kiana Fontaine, and Lisa Stinner-Kun.

With associated programming and support from: Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library, Living Prairie Museum, Manitoba Museum, St. Boniface Museum, The Leaf, Bonsai Society of Winnipeg, St. Boniface Hospital Environment Sustainability Committee, Mental Health Services, McEwen Building, Dr. Champa Wijekoon, Dr. Chris Siow.

Check out this story about the bison that Living Prairie Museum is making for the exhibition!

Launch: 6-9 pm Thursday 11 September 2025

Exhibit runs from: 12 September – 14 November 2025