Artist
www.mycelium - Red Cube Frensham
www.mycelium - reconnecting with nature via the wood wide web
www.mycelium, draws together flint nodules collected on dog walks around Alton during lockdown, enveloped in repurposed and embroidered fabric, woven together with recycled threads into an intricate subterranean web.
Increasingly man is turning to nature to help solve the climate crisis. Mycelium (fungi) is proving to be a fruitful source, providing alternatives to plastic packaging, leather and meat. However, it has been the increased understanding of the importance of mycelium in the ecosystem that has fascinated Claire. It is said that mycelium form a Wood Wide Web, a network of fibres underground that connect and envelop root systems of plants and trees often for mutual benefit. Not only are nutrients and chemicals passed from one to the other but so is information.
In 2018, Claire was involved in a collaborative work at Modern Art Oxford creating a piece called ‘Continuing Bodies’ displayed in Whytham Woods, Oxford, made with a new material designed as an alternative to polystyrene packaging. Wood shavings impregnated by mycelium are moulded into shape and the mycelium is allowed to grow, binding the shavings together. This becomes a solid shape that is biodegradable.
