The Bee Lady

1994

Alison Clouston

Accessible

Type

  • Sculpture

Medium

  • Wood
  • Paint

Dimensions

  • H1010mm [TBC]

Alison Clouston, ‘The Bee Lady’ (1994), Botanic Gardens, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

Image: Maribeth Coleman, Public Art and Publicly Accessible Art collection, 1994. Courtesy Wellington City Libraries. CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0.

2026–Current

South end of Herb Garden, Wellington Botanic Garden, 101 Glenmore Street, Kelburn, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

1994–Current

Entrance to Treehouse Visitor Centre, Wellington Botanic Garden, 101 Glenmore Street, Kelburn, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

Artists
Associated Artwork Organisation(s)

Description

Hewn from a tree trunk and dressed in bee colours, the bee keeper is a powerful figure with a sturdy body, large hands and a penetrating paua shell gaze. She could be seen as the spirit of the vegetation she is emerging from.

The sculpture was placed in storage for a time, before being restored by the artist in 2025 and reinstalled in a new site in the Herb Garden at the Botanic Gardens in 2026, where she has been strategically positioned near a group of beehives.

See also: