BSW Group has donated over 2,500 logs to the BEAM installation, a multi-sensory experience at this year’s Glastonbury Festival which has been designed by award-winning artist Wolfgang Buttress.
Buttress is best known for his sculpture in Kew Gardens, Hive, which won a gold medal at the 2015 Milan Expo and highlights the importance of bees in our ecosystem.
He hopes to continue to spread this positive message with BEAM, which will be staged in the Greenpeace Field and ties in well with Glastonbury’s theme of bio diversity.
Buttress said: “In creating the BEAM installation we hope to communicate the intrinsic relationship between bee and human, promoting the vital role that honeybees play in pollinating 30% of the food we eat whilst educating people on the challenges that bees face in today’s climate.”
This impactful multi-sensory display will be achieved by Buttress and his team using accelerometers placed inside a colony of black bee hives located in Worthy Farm at Glastonbury.
The accelerometers will monitor the colony’s activity and send live, vibrational signals to the installation, converting this information into light and sound to echo the activity of the bees.
Inside the internal hexagon, Buttress will use 12 super-bright projectors to display specifically curated films onto the walls. “The visuals will change depending on where you stand within the space, rather like being inside a kaleidoscope of a hive,” he explained.
Constructing the impressive structure, which consists of the inner 12-metre hexagon and a wider outer diameter of 25 metres, has been made possible thanks to the large donation of material from the team at BSW Timber.
Tony Hackney, chief executive at BSW, said: “We are delighted to be donating the logs, which were harvested by our sister company Tilhill Forestry, and to be playing a part in Wolfgang’s phenomenal vision, BEAM.
“With a business that is, at its very core, built on nature, we are passionate about the environment and we strive to communicate the environmental impact of everyday activities to our customers and stakeholders alike.
“Involvement in projects such as the BEAM installation at Glastonbury’s Greenpeace Field provides us with an opportunity to further demonstrate our commitment to the environment. We are grateful to Wolfgang for the opportunity to both strengthen our company values and to support such a worthy festival experience.”
Buttress added: “I’d like to say a huge thank you to BSW Timber for their donation. This is a charity project for us as a team – and whilst we expect to have a lot of fun along the way, this thought-provoking installation would not be possible without the generosity of BSW Timber.”
