Collecting honey is an ancient activity. When preserved properly honey never expires, and specimens excavated from the Pharaoh's tomb are rumored to have an indescribable taste. The viscous substance has been widely known to hold the memories of primeval wildflowers. No matter how long you’ve mistakenly left that jar in the back of your cupboard slightly ajar, it somehow never fully dries to the touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch touch

With beginnings in the prehistoric period, bee husbandry and mankind’s collection of natural honey has been obsessively standardized over many millennia. First, hoards of frenetic bees drink nectar from flowers in the surrounding area, before coming home to the hive to regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitateregurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitateregurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate their lunch.

The regurgitation continues, as workers pass it along amongst themselves in a chainlike formation. Eventually the organic material has had enough water pressed out of it to become what we market as honey. The beekeeper must now prepare to safely remove the frames of honey from the hive. By filling the internal corridors and crevices with thick smoke, the keeper subdues the bees into compliance and their honey is non-consensually extracted and the cycle begins again.

Florian Meisenberg (b. 1980, Berlin, Germany) lives and works in New York and Düsseldorf. He has upcoming solo exhibitions at Kate MacGarry, London (2023, forthcoming); Simone Subal Gallery, New York (2023, forthcoming); and Ora et Lege (2024, forthcoming).Recent solo shows include Provinz, Bochum, Germany (2023); E.A Shared Space, Tbilisi, Georgia (2022); Kate MacGarry, London (2020, 2013, 2011); Simone Subal Gallery, New York (2021, 2020, 2018, 2015, 2013); Kunstparterre, Munich (2020); Avlskarl, Copenhagen (2020, 2017); Zabludowicz Collection, London (2019); Kunstpalais Erlangen, Germany (2019); Wentrup Gallery, Berlin (2019, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2012); Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles (2018); and SIGNAL, New York (2016). Selected group exhibitions include: Berthold Pott, Cologne, Germany (2024, Forthcoming); Kunstpalais Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany (2023); Margot Samel, New York, NY (2023); Insel Hombroich Kulturraum, Neuss, Germany (2023), Ruhruniversitaet Bochum, Bochum (2023); Educational and Cultural Center Broumov, Broumov, Czech Republic (2021); Wentrup, Berlin, Germany (2020); Jetzt! Junge Malerei in Deutschland, exhibition in four locations in Germany, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Museum Wiesbaden, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz Museum Gunzenhauser, and Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2019); Künstlerhaus Bremen, Germany (2019 – 2020); Museum der Bildenden Kuenste Leipzig, Germany (2019); neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany (2018); Zabludowicz Collection, London (2018); Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen, Germany (2017); Broehan Museum, Berlin, Germany, (2017); Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe, Germany (2017); Neuer Kunstverein Aschaffenburg, Germany (2017); ICA, Philadelphia (2017); and Kiasma Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Finland, (2017). Florian Meisenberg’s work is part of the following collections Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA; Boros Collection, Berlin, Germany; Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK; Kiasma Museum, Helsinki, Finland; and the Sammlung Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf im Museum Kunstpalast, Germany. In 2018, Distanz published Meisenberg’s third monograph with the title: SOMEWHERE, SIDEWAYS DOWN, AT AN ANGLE, BUT VERY CLOSE.