Bompas & Parr has announced a new exhibition called The Power of Honey: Food, Finance and the Golden Age of Fraud, opening at the Bank of England Museum on 20 July.
The Power of Honey is created and operated by Bompas & Parr in association with the British Museum of Food, and sponsored by Visa and the City of London.
From fake honey to financial scams, the interactive exhibition uses the beehive to examine how trust is built, protected and deceived.
Via live bees, honey-smelling challenges, UV banknote investigations, ancient artefacts and family trails, guests will discover how deception works across food, finance and daily life.
At the centre of the exhibition is the Bee-nomics Inspection Hive, a custom-built observation hive that invites visitors to watch living bees patrol, communicate, protect resources and defend the colony.
The hive will be managed by sustainable beekeeping practice Bermondsey Street Bees. To protect the welfare of the bees, colonies will be rotated regularly, with each group spending only a few days in the museum.
Living bees in the Bank of England Museum
"To encounter living bees inside the Bank of England Museum is to watch trust being made in real time," said Sarah Wyndham Lewis, co-founder of Bermondsey Street Bees.
"A hive is a working society, constantly communicating, guarding, adapting and protecting what it values. In this exhibition, the bees are not decorative symbols of industry; they are active teachers."
Per a press release, fraud now accounts for more than 40 percent of crime in England and Wales, and honey has become one of the world's most counterfeited foods.
"Fraud can feel invisible, abstract and remote, until it happens to you. Honey gives us a way to make the problem tangible. You can smell it, test your assumptions and see how easily deception can work on the senses," said Harry Parr, co-founder of Bompas & Parr.
'The Power of Honey' is created and operated by Bompas & Parr in association with the British Museum of Food
"The Bee-nomics Inspection Hive is not a metaphor sitting quietly in the corner. It is alive, working, watching and teaching us how vigilance operates in nature.”
Saskia Boersma, head of the Bank of England Museum, said: "The Bank of England Museum is a place where visitors come to understand money, trust and the systems that shape everyday life.
"The Power of Honey brings those ideas into sharp focus through bees, honey and fraud. It is playful, surprising and serious at the same time, connecting the history of finance with one of the most urgent issues facing people today."
Images courtesy of Bompas & Parr
