Myconstellations utilises a critical bio-design approach in the production of expanded fashion and textile objects. Discarded clothing damaged beyond repair has been broken down and re-processed into textile sheets by using paper-making techniques. These textile planes have then been introduced to mushroom mycelium. Growing across and through the textile waste, the agency and expressivity of the white fungal networks can be seen on the surface of the cloth in contrast to the black cotton fibres.
Bio-design practices typically look to replace existing unsustainable materials such as cowhide with more sustainable materials such as ‘mushroom leather’. The practical function of these new biomaterials is often communicated through a proof-of-concept object. However, Myconstellations looks to break with the familiar material and object tropes that aim to manipulate living systems into aesthetically pure commodities. Instead, the modular wearable and patchwork assemblages amplify the unruly expressive capacities of fungi.
Through a bilateral exchange between fungi and designer, a kind of collaborative and abstract care is required when working across the species divide. Fungi are incredibly adaptive organisms that are prone to boredom. They require familiar and reliable nutrients and conditions, as well as creative gustatory challenges. Therefore, practicing care for and with fungi in multispecies collaborative contexts, requires a balance of managing expectations and difference.
These works were exhibited in ‘Biomateriality’ at the Delmar Gallery in Sydney during May/June 2022.
Photography by Silversalt and process images by Alia Parker.