Living Labyrinths: Art and Fungi

By bringing together the work of leading contemporary artists, Living Labyrinths suggests ways to reimagine our relationship with the earth. It explores themes of symbiosis, and biodiversity, as well as concepts from medical mycology.

Through artworks in a range of media including ceramic, glass, photography, painting and textile, Living Labyrinths offers thought-provoking interpretations of mycorrhizal networks. The exhibition considers how fungi shape both our physical and conceptual worlds.

Newly conserved dried specimens, natural history drawings and lantern slides from across RAMM’s collections of fungi have inspired two new art commissions. A large-scale drawing of the human mycobiome by Gemma Anderson-Tempini, and bio-sonic sound art of mycelial networks by Jason Singh feature in the exhibition.

Also on display will be watercolours of fungi by Beatrix Potter, better known as the children’s author and illustrator, and Cy Twombly’s influential collage series Natural History, Part I, Mushrooms from 1974. These major loans will be displayed alongside innovative and inspiring work by eight internationally renowned contemporary artists: Sian Bonnell, Seana Gavin, Andy Harper, Hilde Hauan Johnsen, Lucy Mercer, Jo Pearl, Chantal Powell, and Holly Stevenson.

The Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery would like to acknowledge the following institutions who have helped to make this exhibition possible: the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Tate. 

With special thanks to the artists.