Carry a Torch, Mushroom spores on paper
When was this piece created? In the fall of 2021
What is the story behind this piece? Made with the bioluminescent spores of Jack O’ Lantern mushrooms I forage and fennel/Foeniculum vulgare, an herb I gathered at the Penland School in North Carolina. Fennel is an allelopathic plant (one that inhibits the growth of neighboring plants), and one I have always admired for its stately growing structure, feathery fronds, and flower sprays of umbels.
What inspired this piece? Fennel/Foeniculum vulgare, is an herb historically believed to impart strength and courage; in magic circles, it is attributed to clarity and finding solutions to difficult situations. Prometheus, it is said, stole fire from the gods and brought it to the earth on a stalk of fennel.
Is there an outside element that influenced this piece (i.e. another artist, nature, a novel, a theory, etc)?
Fungi have been solving problems for billions of years through a mutual, but not always equal, exchange with other life forms. I am one of those forms; I gather mushrooms, then, like the wind and other animals, I spread the powdery spores of mushrooms, germinating them into a fruiting body that takes the form not of a toadstool, but of a two-dimensional image on paper.
Is this part of a series; if so what is the series? It is part of The New Herbarium series in which I reimagine the centuries-old process of collecting and preserving plants for science and art. In traditional herbaria, botanical specimens are pressed and arranged on paper. My technique departs from tradition when I place a foraged mushroom, gill-side down, on top of plants, which then serve as stencils. After the billions of spores contained in the gills or pores of the mushroom are released, they fall and mark the paper. Leaf and flower silhouettes are rendered in spores with texture, abstract patterns, and photographic detail.
Explain/Tell us anything else you would like us to know about this specific work: Mushrooms and I tell stories together. Our interspecies relationship grounds me; perhaps a collaboration with other species may help humans to survive the current and growing disasters of our warming planet.
What is one of your artistic goals? One of my goals is to present imagery that portrays the connectivity that may carry us into a future where humans live as part of, rather than attempt to dominate, ecosystems.
Do you have any shows coming up? Drawn Together, group show, at Kingston Gallery, August 2022
The New Herbarium, solo show, at Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, October 2022
Madge Evers
Bio-Madge Evers is an educator, gardener, and visual artist whose work is informed by the transformative actions of decomposition and regeneration. Referencing the ancient collaboration in mycorrhiza, her practice involves foraging for mushrooms and plants and sometimes includes the cyanotype process. In 2021, she was a Mass Cultural Council photography fellow and named an emerging artist to watch by Art New England in March of 2020. After teaching for 25 years in Rhode Island and Massachusetts public schools, Madge now works as a full-time artist.
Website: https://www.sporeplay.com/
Instagram: @_Sporeplay