Finding Connection Symbiocene Era Mycelium, Soils and Roots Opens at Bushel in Delhi

DELHI — One of the most thought provoking art exhibits to hit the Catskills in recent months kicked off October 25 at Bushel in Delhi and extends through December 7.   This group show, titled “Symbiocene Era: Mycelium, Soils and Roots” and  curated by artist Kathleen Sweeney, features 14 artists who work with the earth’s natural resources in the production of their art.  “Symbiocene” refers to symbiosis, or living together to create a world for all living beings and the earth, a concept embraced by all the artists on show.    Although only several of the artists can be profiled here, the entire show is a bounty of riches,  big ideas, and highly unexpected methods and materials. 

The artist XS Hou, uses living agents —most notably slime molds, the  evolutionary cousin to fungi, to create dreamy images,  patterns and collages on  silk.   Hou was first drawn to slime molds for their appearance in the wild.  “They are neon yellow and fractals,” Hou says of these thread-like organisms. Hou lays the mold onto silk, setting it  into a humidifier where the mold spreads and grows undisturbed into intricate web-like patterns.  Hou applies Sumi ink to the silk immediately upon removal from the humidifier and the networks of pattern created by the mold appear as negatives—white on  black background.   The pieces are  reminiscent of ancient Chinese drawing.   Interestingly Hou sometimes juxtaposes  this natural process with patterns produced by AI to mirror the paths of the mold.  

Like Hou,  Roberta Trentin collaborates with materials  and watches how they develop.  Her large scale untitled wall sculpture uses two types of mushroom paper to create a dynamic arrangement of form and color. The mushroom paper is  fabricated by Trentin and shaped in the drying process.   In another corner of Bushel,  Trentin also “biosonified”  two types of mushrooms, a shitake Lentinula and a Witch’s butter Tremella allowing visitors to hear the electrical signals of different types of fungi.  Biosonification translates the bio-rhythms of living organisms into electrical signals and sounds. The sounds produced by the  two types of mushrooms she chose were high pitched, arrhythmic and,urgent, responding to factors such as light, heat, moisture and temperature-and Trentin posits responding differently to each  person listening.   

Since moving to the Catskills several years ago, collagist and textile artist Mary McFerran has explored the use of natural dyes, by seeking and testing  native plants from the surrounding countryside, using them to dye fabrics through trial and error,  and incorporating those which work best into her work.  Her wall-hung cloth book, “Warm: A Little Misty,”  combines upcycled fabrics with embroidered images of farm women engaged in work in Delaware County during the early 20th century. The threads McFerran uses to create these images and chronicle these lives are infused with the colors she’s made with plants such as pear tree branches, chicory and daisies.  Focusing not just on the natural world but the history of the area,  McFerran delved deep into the lives of  farm women of the past century, by going to the Delhi Historical Society and scouring the diaries they left behind.  She uses the women’s own words to produced the book’s narrative.  

Sculptor Jim Zivic repurposes coal to create his pieces.  On show are two  blocks of anthracite coal that Zivic has transformed into marble like surfaces through contouring, sculpting, sanding and polishing with the same product that’s used for cars.     He sources his coal  from the surface mines of western Pennsylvania and works on them in his studio in Jefferson.  The blocks, each about 18 inches in width and 12 in depth look enormous in scale with the addition of tiny human figures placed on this barren landscape, a look at man’s relation both to nature and industry. .  

Zivic is a highly sought furniture designer who uses coal for its commercial use.  “But I started envisioning these coal sculptures as models for bigger ideas about fossil fuels. By turning coal into art, it will no longer be burned and pollute the air.”    

Although painter Pareesa Pourian uses traditional tools  such as oil on canvas, her works depict  a vast underworld of beauty and interconnectedness she’s found by immersing herself in the forests of the Catskills.    Iranian born, her work resonates with Persian rugs and 90s wallpaper. “I was subsumed by the overlapping tangles of plant growth,” she says.  “ The things we might designate as backgrounds are not passive or inert.   They’re  teeming with critters,  bacteria and mycelial networks, vast exchanges of information and activity.”   

The show’s curator, multi-media artist, writer and Assistant Professor of Media Studies at The New School, Kathleen Sweeney, used her own human network to put this show together, a network of artists also teeming with information and activity.  

“You could say that the whole show is a metaphor,” says Sweeney. “We are all interconnected!  My overarching goal in show was to bring the community together sharing tools and ideas,  revealing secrets, tools, methods key solutions to moving beyond toxic, fossil fuel chemically derived art materials and think of ourselves as solution makers. We can do this through our art-making, our gardens, and our interactions with people. and one thing that is really important is to empower people that there is hopefulness.” ” 

“Symbiocene Era: Mycelium, Soils, and Roots” continues through December 7 at Bushel, 106 Main Street, Delhi, New York.