Gills of other creatures

Abstract

The exhibition “Gills of other creatures” set out to visually explore the problem of living with death experience in my own struggle to move beyond mourning. The search developed from a previous exhibition, “Enfolding”, which in part, reflected on a tree planting ritual in a park. The transformative abilities of fungi to turn decaying material into a new form of energy, presented a vehicle for visual thinking. Intrigued by the mystery where matter becomes transformed by a species neither animal nor plant, I researched the rich alchemy of mushrooms. This became a metaphor for striving to connect to the intangible.

Developing images of the fruiting of fungi, I probed modes of representation to recall the mycelial body in earth or wood and in such suggest a hidden world. Through layering techniques, I searched for mechanisms that can present a sense of obscuring. For example, I used collage at the back of translucent layers and then scrubbed sections off with steel wool. The ink and collage “Mycelium Sound” and print “Listening to silence” both searched for equivalents to articulate a flow of energy that became visible. The latter print is in fact the hidden back of “Mycelium Sound”.

Thus the research project, of which the exhibition “Gills of other creatures” was the first, introduced mycelial interpretation through media experimentation. Amongst others, photographing through tracing paper which resulted in prints on rice paper (“Mycelium life” series); drawing with inks on semi-translucent layers (“Mycelium Sound”); and reinterpreting the flow of ink into milky oil paint (“Spores and breath”). Substance coagulation and reticulation of oil paint due to surface preparation, reminded of the alchemical nature of pigment transformation, leading me to rethink my use of charcoal (“Gills of little creatures”). I experimented by fixing grated charcoal and pastel onto surfaces, recalling the powdery surfaces of some mushrooms. The unfolding process thus played an important part in concept development.

Sheldrake’s 2021 “Entangled life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures”, sensuously describes the immense presence of fungi and the human being’s cohabitation and dependence on this ecosphere. The mycelial mesh is an entangled realm beneath us, surrounding us - some even living within us.

“Life is at the root tips” pays homage to mycelium growth and reminds us to live in the present. This work overlaid an earlier work (“Mountain Karee for Stefan”) with drawings of mushroom growth, urging recovery. I’m further influenced by Haraway’s (2016) “stories that gather stories”, as she links ecology studies and future fantasies to argue for complex systems and interspecies relationships. I find solace in the lingering thought that we are communities of being, actively immersed in various life-worlds. This porous boundary is expressed in the abstractions “Spores and breath” and “Gills of little creatures”.

The h-shaped structure of the overall installation, with its central ‘bridging” shape, was an intentional hint at the Periodical table of elements, a contemporary schema of knowledge. Hillman’s (2010) lectures on Alchemy contextualises much older wisdoms of thinking, and reminds us that metaphors of alchemy hold useful lessons for our psychological understanding. My work titles “Metabolic alchemy” alludes to this context, whilst “Underbelly” speaks to the vulnerability of life (soft underbelly) instantly transformable by the trauma.

Fourteen works in total were installed: Eight digital works, three oil paintings (of which one is a triptych), two ink drawings and a mixed media (monotype/charcoal/collage) drawing. They formed a substantial contribution to the group exhibition “Uncanny Stories”.

In the curatorial brief of the group exhibition “Uncanny Stories”, I wrote “Making art often includes searching for the tensions between known and unknown, between ordinary existence and intriguing events that write peculiar new stories into our lives.” My works are about thinking how life continues beyond distress and how the complex biology of our own emotional being as hidden as fungi’s energy. The lines of mushroom gills echo the folds of our synapses where memory is buried. The work contributes to narratives of trauma and eco-aesthetics, aimed at finding metaphors for interpreting life after death not only as sorrow but as gentle resurgence.