Mycelium Microcosm: Mushrooms Link Science with Art
© George Francis Atkinson (1854-1918) Inocybe. circa 1892-1918. Courtesy of Artstor.
By ClydaJane Dansdill
It was proven in 2007 that around 400 million years ago, regions of planet Earth were blanketed with forests of enormous mushrooms with trunks as high as 20 feet tall. These fungal giants are known as Prototaxites, and the scientific confirmation of their prehistoric presence reifies the literature and film humanity has since manifested in reverence for their strange beauty. Journey To The Center Of The Earth, Alice and Wonderland, and Hiayo Miazaki’s Naussica of the Valley of the Wind feature worlds in which humans come into contact with towering jungles of mushrooms. American mycologist George Francis Atkinson (1854-1918) is a legendary contributor to the focus of fungi, and was a pioneer in the use of photography for the study of mushrooms. His photographs of specimens were integral to modern biology, and today serve as more than just scientific models, but archival proof of the longevity of the mushroom as an image.
© George Francis Atkinson (1854-1918) Amanita. circa 1892-1918. Courtesy of Artstor.
Mycellium enthusiasm has been blooming not only in the scientific community: there is tell of a possible vegan replacement for leather, and something called The Infinity Burial Suit, a body suit whose fabric is infused with mushroom spores that allow the body to decay in a natural and eco-friendly manner - but also in the art world. Fascination with the multi-hued meaning and striking, alien beauty of these organisms is increasing among creatives types. For a long time, mushrooms were associated with decay, witchery, and death. I moved into a terrible freshman dorm in college that had an actual toadstool growing between the bathroom tiles, and we all know the feeling rotten fruit or mildewed homes gives the olfactory senses. Mushrooms were prevalent to the Victorian trend of botanical illustration, and creative affinity for their aesthetic and chemical power spilled into the 20th century. In 1957, ethnomycologist Robert Gordon Wasson published a photo essay titled “Seeking the Magic Mushroom” in LIFE Magazine. It detailed the author's adventures ingesting Psilocybin in Mexico, and gained a fair amount of notoriety. Recreational use of magic mushrooms has been kind of main stream ever since. The mushroom has many uses, then, and as science plots ahead on how to decrease waste and pollution with the bacteria’s ability to both decay and potentially even build, art is also eagerly catching hold of this fungi fervor. In 2019, London’s annual Design Fair chose biomaterial as their theme, and the exhibition "Mushrooms: The art, design and future of fungi." will be on view at Somerset House through April 26th, 2020.
© Phyllis Ma Berkelys Polypore.
As for art in America, the function of fungi is inspirational and poignant to many creatives. Photographers Viviane Sassen, Phyllis Ma, and Kelsey McClellan have harnessed the enigmatic materials of mycelium via camera to celebrate and explore the utility and symbolization of these organisms and the role they play in joining science and art.
© Phyllis Ma. Greenwood Bolete.
Phyllis Ma is a New York based artist whose Seussian still lifes strike somewhere between delicious and toxic. Ma is fascinated with the distinct personalities of mushrooms. Discovering their versatility during a visit to a Brooklyn Mushroom farm prompted Ma to begin her collection Mushrooms & Friends last year. She has been playing around with food in photography since 2014, and now forages for mushrooms as both a hobby and artistic pursuit. Ma composes her fungal forms in tall, diginified perspectives that make their actual scale unclear. Vividly lit backgrounds in electric hues broadcast these forms as especially regal versions of their unique selves. Mushrooms have distinct personalities, and that identifying them requires an understanding of their macroscopic sculpture. Fungi is ideal as a subject for art because the connotations associated are of wide, wild range - they are simultaneously enticing and off-putting as both culinary and symbolic items of the natural world. Ma’s exotically colored mushroom still lifes run parallel with the artist’s eclectic wardrobe, which is all vibrant hand-made and vintage. For a glimpse of her work and her style visit Phyllis Ma’s website here.
© Phyllis Ma. Berlin Blewit.
© Phyllis Ma. Teapot.
© Kelsey McClellan. Styling by Michelle Maguire. Courtesy of the Artist.
Photographer Kelsey McClellan is San Francisco based artist who also shows an affinity for color, fashion and food. Her portfolio is complimentary mashup up the aforementioned, and in 2018 she collaborated with an eco-sustainable clothing brand called Older Brother for their Fall/Winter collection, a gender neutral batch of handsome threads all dyed using Reishi and Chaga mushrooms. Far West Fungi Farm in Monterey Bay, CA provided access to their shipping container grow rooms in which gorgeous bushels of wood ear, lions mane, and oyster mushrooms bloomed from the shelves. McClellan photographed a model styled by Michelle Maguire, and the finished product presented was not just an innovative fashion spread, but also an intimate selection of human beauty coinciding with the lush texture of mushrooms and their symbolic medicinal absurdity. For more of McClellan’s work, visit her website here.
© Kelsey McClellan. Styling by Michelle Maguire. Modeling by Jack Kyle Franklin. Courtesy of the Artist.
Viviane Sassen is an Amsterdam based artist known for her use abstracted use of the female form, geometric shapes, and strange, conceptual still lives. Her series 2017 Of Mud and Lotus is themed around collage and mixed media applications of photography. Organic and manmade materials are juxtaposed against natural forms and the artist’s added use of paint. Femininity and fertility are present tropes, and several pieces feature different species of mushrooms paired with female figures and leafy sprigs of flora. The mushroom’s nuance as a symbol of both fecundity and decomposition compliment the overarching theme of rebirth - spores and toadstools interrupt human bodies and announce themselves loudly against paler pigments and contrary textures.
© Viviane Sassen. Amanita Fulva, from Of Mud and Lotus, 2017. Archival pigment ink and collage on Baryta paper. Courtesy Prinsengracht 371D.
© Viviane Sassen. Gallopp from Of Mud and Lotus, 2017. Archival pigment ink and collage on Baryta paper. Courtesy Prinsengracht 371D.
© Viviane Sassen. Russula Coerulea from Of Mud and Lotus, 2017. Archival pigment ink and collage on Baryta paper. Courtesy Prinsengracht 371D.
© Viviane Sassen. Amanita Muscaria, from Of Mud and Lotus, 2017. Archival pigment ink and collage on Baryta paper. Courtesy Prinsengracht 371D.
The mushroom has many uses, and as science plots ahead on how to decrease waste and pollution with the bacteria’s ability to both decay and potentially even build, art is also eagerly catching hold of this fungi fervor. In 2019, London’s annual Design Fair chose biomaterial as their theme, and the exhibition "Mushrooms: The art, design and future of fungi." will be on view at Somerset House through April 26th, 2020. Mycellium enthusiasm has been blooming in much more than the scientific community. There is tell of a possible vegan replacement for leather, and something called The Infinity Burial Suit, a body suit whose fabric is infused with mushroom spores that allow the body to decay in a natural and eco-friendly manner. The elements of design and aesthetic have been mingling heavily with the realm of fungi in recent years, and as the life’s inhabitants strive to discover more mushroom methods for earth-friendly and sustainable living, art will follow suit.
