{"id":184,"date":"2023-05-20T23:43:39","date_gmt":"2023-05-20T23:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artscisalon.com\/emergent-gallery\/?page_id=184"},"modified":"2024-08-06T17:29:55","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T17:29:55","slug":"mycosymbiosis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/artscisalon.com\/emergent-gallery\/mycosymbiosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Mycosymbiosis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mycosymbiosis<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mycosymbiosis <\/strong>is an installation by Xiaojing Yan

Mobile Gallery Concept, Design, and Fabrication:<\/strong>
Roberta Buiani, University of Toronto, Lorella Di Cintio, Toronto Metropolitan University, Ilze Briede (Kavi), York University

Scientific advising:<\/strong> James Scott, Dalla Lana School of Public Health<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University – May 7, 2023
Glendon Campus, York University – Fall 2023<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Yan weaves together ideas of identity as both complicated and complex, and a perspective on nature as transcending the boundaries of self and other, inside and outside, familiar and foreign. Yan inoculated the space adjacent to the external walls of the mobile gallery with three cultures of Oyster Mushrooms and recorded them as they emerged and gradually populated its interstitial space. A timelapse of their growth is projected inside the gallery.
The resulting living sculpture continues to transform in the next weeks as temperatures and humidity fluctuate, welcoming a variety of symbiotic organisms that support, compete with, and feed off the mushrooms. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Mycosymbiosis<\/strong> thrives, dries, shrinks, and decays together with, and thanks to, the myriads of living and non-living elements that host, sustain, and interact with it inside and outside<\/p>\n\n\n

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This installation is a constantly changing living sculpture. The vessel (the Mobile Gallery) was stained by spores and other microbial “juices”; and the mushrooms went through various stages of fruiting, drying, decaying, and falling victims of other organisms. The mushrooms were as important as the other organisms feeding off, consuming and coexisting with them <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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With this installation, it was very important to reveal the process leading to the moment of the actual exhibition. In fact, the mushrooms continued growing and fruiting even after the mobile gallery was transferred to its first location at TMU. The timelapse only records the initial 3 weeks of growth, creating a meta-gallery inside the material gallery<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\"details-side-1\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
a few shots of the fruiting process<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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we employed three types of oyster mushrooms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Fruiting has been constant as mushrooms grow at different rates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Emergent #2 was exhibited in two completely different settings: one was created indoor in a controlled environment while the second one was located outdoor, in a DIY greenhouse. In both cases, we obtained inoculated oyster mushroom spawn from the same provider and we used the same technique and substrate to trigger fruiting. However, given the different conditions of our venues, the results were wildly different. mushrooms microorganisms and molds populated the two installations at different rates, size and intensity, coexisting with, and transforming the mobile gallery in ways we could not predict. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fruiting in the first three weeks of exposure (mid October). The mobile gallery has mostly retained its original color and shape<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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State of the mobile gallery at the end of the cycle before dismantling (end of December). Mold, yeast and other organisms now inhabit the artifact. Mushrooms have grown, and decayed at least twice<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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View of the green house in the evening. The greenhouse protected the mobile gallery for the entire time <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Before it found its permanent location in the side balcony of the Glendon Manor, the Mobile Gallery went for a tour of the campus on October 2, helped by the students of the bilingual program in Communications. The artist and the fabrication team were in attendance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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