A place for Modern Design?

Don't think you have to have a modern home to enjoy modern art.

Stacy Huggins of Charleston Art Mag recently sent me a fascinating blog post featuring The Beehive in the Garden. It highlights a wonderful modern art sculpture inspired by the interaction of man and bees, and it's set in a formal garden of a Parisian mansion originally built in the 1620s.

Dance of Bees, or "La Danse des Abeilles" by French designers Vaulot & Dyèvre 

I love the color and the old-fashioned idea of a beehive re-presented as this blue cage-like sculpture. To me, it is inviting, saying that the garden is part of the present, not just revered because of its role in the past, but very much today. The past is preserved, yes, but at once you think about the people who chose this sculpture, who live here now. And that's a beautiful thing.

Pertinent discussion, perhaps, for Charleston, don't you think? In fact, such a debate is in progress, and I for one, agree with Robert Behre, who says, "reusing buildings gently --without tarting them up so their original incarnation is completely obscured." Here in Charleston, it's a balance between respecting the old while living in the present. Just like The Beehive in the Garden.