Beehive Collective: Not Your Average Poster

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a presentation by two artists from the BeeHive Collective.  This group is made up of artists from all over, who collectively collaborate on intricate posters that detail different social commentaries.

Now these posters come in all shapes and sizes.  Here's one of the bigger posters using some friends for scale:

The poster we are standing in front of is titled, "Mesoamerica Resiste!" and illustrates the resistance, resilience, and solidarity from Mexico to Columbia.  It details personal stories from groups who are standing up to the modern invasion planned for their homeland while they attempt to protect their culture and way of life.

But here's another interesting part of all BeeHive Collective art, there are no humans drawn.  Looking closer you will instantly notice that humans are replaced with animal characters at an attempt to not perpetuate any stereotypes through their drawings.

Let's look closer, MUCH CLOSER, at one specific story that comes from the poster titled "The True Cost of Coal."

Notice the four frog characters that exist in a circle?  Start with the frog in the hardhat at the top.  He is about to detonate a cliff to extract the resources from it.  Above his head dangles his paycheck on a fishing line.

Move left and you noticed a frog having serious back pain.  Or could it be his kidney?  Notice the contaminated water the small tadpole is drinking.

At the bottom, a frog is using his paycheck to buy medicine from a "jackass" of a pharmacist.  His jacket sports the logos of the pharmaceutical companies that pay him to push overpriced pills on the desperate frog.  The tadpole is purchasing a bottle of water.

Finally to the right, the frog only has a few cents left and realizes he must go back to mining as he puts his hardhat back on.  The smaller frog to his right is considering following the frog footpath of his family or going to a new path.  This new path is cut off, but it leads to a bus station, signaling how many rural youth are choosing to leave their families for the city to avoid the poverty circle they feel trapped in.

So there's an entire commentary on the mining industry told by frogs.  Amazing right?  Throughout the presentation last night I could not get over the stories I was being told, or the underlying hopelessness of most of the situations.

However, both presenters had ideas for how to remedy this.  On a basic level, there needs to be an increase of education and community collaboration.  We also shouldn't fear changing what the "American Way of Life" is and also shifting our current hierarchical paradigm to multiple communicative paradigms.  We need to gain advice from our elders, but also encourage our youth to start a new lifestyle.  And most importantly, we need to be receptive to stories, like the ones the BeeHive tells us.  Because nothing sparks activism more than the awareness that is attained through listening to others.

Upcoming Events
The Beehive Collective will be in Lincoln, NE for two more days!
See their Lincoln Events Here