Artist Ren Ri works with honeybees to create gorgeous wax maps of the world

Rather than using traditional marble, plaster or wood, artist <a href="http://www.pearllam.com/exhibition/ren-ri-yuansu-projects/" target="_blank">Ren Ri</a> creates beautiful sculptures with the help of <a href="http://inhabitat.com/chinese-artist-collaborates-with-honeybees-to-create-amazing-wax-sculptures/" target="_blank">honeybees</a>! The artist has teamed up with a swarm of pollinators to create gorgeous sculptures <a href="//inhabitat.com/markus-fiedler-re-uses-beeswax-to-create-amazingly-realistic-objects/markus-fiedler-error-error10/" target="_blank">made entirely from beeswax</a>. In Ri’s latest series, “Yuansu I: The Origin of Geometry,” Ri works with the bees to great realistic maps of countries around the world.

Ri’s interest in honeybees began in 2006, when he started practicing <a href="http://inhabitat.com/philips-unveils-sexy-concept-bee-keeping-gadget/" target="_blank">beekeeping</a>, raising bees on his property and studying their growth and processes.

After a few years of beekeeping, he got the idea to incorporate his bee friends’ work into his art making, as a means to explore the relationship between humans and nature.

The beautiful sculptures have taken many iterations over the years, Ri usually allowing the bees to have control of the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/an-army-of-60000-bees-built-this-giant-teapot-shaped-hive/thousand-years-by-libertiny-3/" target="_blank">honey comb</a> form, resulting in abstract three dimensional pieces. But for the Yuansu series, Ri wanted to assert the artist’s hand into the process.

The artist began by creating deep molds of <a href="http://inhabitat.com/artist-byron-rich-creates-and-interactive-bio-sculpture-map-of-the-world/" target="_blank">topographical regions around the world</a>, a world map, Russia, Japan, France, Indonesia and more.

He then placed the molds into his beehive shelves, and let his pollinator friends get to work. After months of progress, the honeycomb builds up in the molds, revealing a sweet,waxen topography.

Ri’s honeycomb maps are currently on display in Hong Kong’s Pearl Lam Galleries Soho. The artist hopes that viewers will leave with the impressions of the relationship between man and nature, both harmonizing and volatile.