Nature’s Mysterious Networks: Mushrooms, Mycelia and Yeasts
22 October – 18 December 2021
Groundwork Gallery, Kings Lynn
The exhibition will open on the 22nd October in Kings Lynn, followed by a virtual exhibition opening and discussion on Assembly Online, Thursday 28 October, 7.30pm.
Watch the event live
We’ll be joined by Veronica Sekules, the curator at Groundwork Gallery, and all the artists from the exhibition: Chris Drury (UK), Alexandra Steiner (Austria), moira williams (USA), Myka Baum (UK & Germany), Alison Counsell (UK), Rachel Horton-Kitchlew (UK)
Groundwork Gallery website
Exhibition Information
Our end-of-year exhibition Nature’s Mysterious Networks, celebrates mushrooms, mycelia and yeasts, some of the more mysterious growths in nature. Subtle and varied, these are elements of our environment which we know as food, as drink, as medicine, as nutrients for soil and plants.
Nature’s Mysterious Networks
Full of experiment and innovation, Nature’s Mysterious Networks will be a revelation both to mycologists – mushroom lovers – and to those people with a general interest in how things and ideas grow between art and nature. All of the artists involved in this exhibition are asking new questions of nature and searching for different answers. Both questions and answers emerge as part of their collaborations with nature in creating images of beauty and curiosity.
Mushrooms, mycelia and yeasts
Mushrooms are utterly fascinating. They represent both life and death. Some are delicious for us to eat providing some of our most sought-after delicacies. Others will kill us with deadly poison. Mycelia are the growth threads which connect them underground, sometimes in enormous networks. They can be a life-giving force, connecting plants and bringing vital nutrients. Mycelia can also act together to break down matter and decompose. Again, this can be a vital force for new life and the death knell for vulnerable plants. Sometimes mature trees can be felled.
Chris Drury Life, Field, Death
Another kind of life giving force are the symbiotic cultures of bacteria and yeasts – SCOBYs – the third element in the exhibition. The are fashionable at the moment, widely cultivated to make drinks. They are both curiosities and beauties, again equally capable of growth and decay. As you will see and hear in this exhibition they have great potential in health and in eco-technology.
Myka Baum SCOBY
Art and Environment
Nature’s mysterious networks is a real area of connection – networking- for art and environment, both aesthetic and vital for life. All these are subjects of great current interest to artists and to cooks. There is much current scientific research interest in mycelia, mushrooms and yeasts. This exhibition will bring these connected issues to the fore and be both beautiful and inspiring.