Balling the Queen:

A Dinner Salon Exploring Honeybees, Consumption, and Collapse

Dinner by JEN MONROE

Installation by TERENCE KOH

Audio by CEP

Mead by ENLIGHTENMENT WINES MEADERY

Flora by FLEUROTICA

Hosted by KIT LUCKEY + CHARLES HICKOX of FARM RIVER FARM

Curated + Produced by CAROLINE MAXWELL

Conceived by JEN MONROE + CAROLINE MAXWELL

Custom Table Designed by JODA

About:

Please join us for an intimate multi-course dinner and a site-specific Bee Chapel installation by Terence Koh on a farm and apiary in New Haven, CT. We'll be considering the complex and frequently invisible roles that bees play in our lives, the problems with monocultures and commercial beekeeping, and the challenges facing our highly interconnected food system.

The honey bee crisis has been heavily publicized over the past decade, but given the constant flux of environmental problems facing both honey bees and commercial beekeepers, alot has been lost in translation. By utilizing the ingredients in the dinner menu as a jumping-off point, we’ll explore new perspectives on the honey bee crisis and what it can teach us about building a more sustainable world.

About the Series:

The Salon is an intimate series that explores environmental concerns through a cross-disciplinary lens. By taking a rhizomatic approach, we hope to illuminate a more holistic and empathetic understanding of the fragile relationship we have with planet earth. The series was created by Caroline Maxwell, a curator and producer based in Brooklyn, NY.

Details:

Day: Friday, August 16th

Time: 6-10pm. Cocktails will begin at 6 pm and dinner will begin at 7:30 pm

Location: Farm River Farm - 200 Meadow Street East Haven, CT 06512

Getting there from NYC: The farm is about a 2-hour drive from New York City or a 2-hour train ride from Grand Central via Metro North. The last train returning back to NYC from New Haven is at 11:24 pm.

Accommodation: For people coming from out of town, there are plenty of local Airbnbs and hotels in New Haven and the surrounding areas. Feel free to reach out for any recommendations.

Tickets: Your ticket includes a multi-course dinner, drink pairing, and entrance into the Bee Chapel. Capacity is very limited.

Dietary Restrictions: The dinner will include egg, dairy, beef, wheat, sesame, nuts, and honey. We may be able to accommodate certain dietary restrictions with advanced notice; feel free to reach out with any concerns.

Questions: Please email rsvp@wilddogsinternational.com

About the Artists:

Jen Monroe is a Brooklyn-based chef and artist whose food project, Bad Taste, is committed to exploring new ways of thinking about food and consumption, approaching food as fantasy and as a transportive medium. Past work has included experimental cotton candy, concept pop-up dinners, a rendering of a futuristic seafood menu in response to climate change, and a series of immersive, monochromatic ten-course "color meals." Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Dazed, Edible Manhattan, Elephant, and Vogue China.

Terence Koh is a conceptual artist working across a wide variety of media. From sculptural installations to theatrical performances, he explores a broad range of subjects such as identity, sexuality, politics, and the natural world. The work often stems from opposing themes: life and death, purity and perversion, beauty and repulsion, chaos and order. Ritualistic in its production and evocative in its final presentation, Koh’s work expands the discourse on conceptual art. Koh was born in Beijing and raised in Mississauga, Ontario. His work has shown at institutions internationally, the subject of solo exhibitions at Schim Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany (2011); MUSAC, León, Spain (2008); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2007); Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland (2006); and the Vienna Secession, Austria (2005). His work has also shown at Tate Modern, London, UK; MoMA PS1, Queens, NY; The Garage Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia; and The New Museum, New York, NY. Koh is included in many notable collections, such as the Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Jumex Collection, Mexico City; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; MUSAC, León; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Balling the Queen: A Dinner Exploring Honeybees, Consumption, and Collapse