Lichen Collaboration for START Norman

Back in April, I made mention of a collaboration that I worked on with Sarah Hearn for the threshold: the promised land exhibition, part of START Norman.  Sarah is a visual artist who also showed work in Rare Earth at Plug Projects in Kansas City last year.  A kindred nature-inspired artist, much of her work involves lichen -- a group of organisms that has strongly grasped my attention as of late.  I've been in awe of Sarah's beautiful macrophotography of these intriguing life forms, intricate paper cutting, and thought provoking installation since I first saw it.  Clearly, I was all about working on a piece together for our site specific installations in Norman.

I'm excited to share the photos of our collaboration with you now, which Sarah so kindly captured for us.  This work is a colony of two lichen interpretations: Parmotrema perforatum (perforated ruffle lichen) and Peltigera canina (dog-lichen).  My contribution included the moss growing among the dog-lichen, and apothecia and ruffles throughout the perforated ruffle lichen.

In addition to the collaboration, Sarah placed several mini-installations of lichen throughout the site, and designed a scavenger hunt for visitors to use in finding them all!  They blended in quite well to their surroundings.  She added my two Succession installations to the hunt as well.  I loved this engaging concept, and hope it was a fun way for visitors to learn about and connect with nature.

After this project, I've found that I can't stop observing lichen whenever I see it.  I'm captivated by it!  This is a subject matter that you will likely see more of in the future.

Succession

It was an honor to be involved in threshold: the promised land at START Norman.  While I was taking down my work recently, I wondered how the space would be transformed in the coming years.  There's some fascinating history there.

Here are some full scale images of my installation.  I hope to have some photos of the collaboration to show in the near future as well.

Succession / 52 Forms of Fungi || #29

I love polypores.  Mushrooms are cute, but there's just something fascinating to me about finding a tree with a ladder of conks growing up the trunk.  They pose a challenge to knit, mostly due to the shape and attachment element, but the colors are especially pleasing to the eye when I get to work on them.  Knit Picks Palette really has become a favorite yarn of mine, simply because of the fact that with 150 shades to choose from it's pretty easy to create that fade from light to dark when necessary.  I have a giant basket full of probably about 1/3 of the colors they offer - HA!

Anyway, what we have here is resinous polypore, created as part of my Succession installation for START Norman (on display for another week!).  The fruiting structures of this species are rather fleshy - I've seen them on trees before and remember the sponginess when poked.  They typically grow on very rotted wood - fallen logs, dead wood, old stumps, etc.

Succession / 52 Forms of Fungi || #28

I knitted velvet foot fungi as one of the species of my Succession installation for START Norman this month.  The exhibition, Threshold: the promised land, incorporated several site-specific installations at the Old Lumber Yard on Main St in Norman, OK.  I wrote more about the background of the project and my installation in my introductory post.

Velvet foot fungus is an interesting one.  It is commonly cultivated for culinary use, but the cultivated mushrooms look completely different from the ones that grow in the wild.  I already knitted the cultivated version last year - the enoki mushroom.  On a side note, I finally tried cooking with them and I highly recommend it!  We used them in Tom Kha Gai, a favorite recipe in our household.

Anyhow, according to Mushroom Expert, this species was also the FIRST MUSHROOM TO ENTER OUTER SPACE.  That's right, these guys were taken on a shuttle mission to study how fungi would react in low gravity.  Pretty cool, huh?  Beyond that, they grow in clumps on decaying stumps and the caps tend to look a little rubbery.

StART Norman || Succession + lichen

StART Norman is a project of the Norman Arts Council, "...born out of the idea that the arts can affect positive and lasting change through placemaking – the act of bringing the “community” back to the Community through a series of art exhibits and installations and temporary improvements to a designated area of Downtown Norman.

I am excited to be a part of Threshold: the promised land, an exhibit of installations by several local artists in the Old Lumber Yard on Main St in Norman, part of the StART Norman project.  Here is the curatorial statement for the exhibit from curators Laura Reese and heather ahtone:

Threshold: the promised land will explore the space as a site for transformation. Threshold implies an opening for change, a boundary yet to be crossed, and the maximum or minimum point of change. The phrase “promised land” brings to mind hope and new beginnings, as well as reflection on local history. The artists will create work that examines themes around building, construction and future potential as well as the economy of exchange. In the early years of the city’s second century, Norman’s citizens seek to express the vibrancy of the community and to celebrate the diversity that makes it an amazing place to live. The exhibition will be accompanied by educational programming and creative performance by local musicians, performance artists, poets, and others. The intent of this installation is to transform the community of Norman through the vehicle of art, reflecting inclusivity and respect as core values of the city.

My installation is entitled "Succession".  Many of the themes I commonly explore with my work apply here, but at the same time this site is very different--- it is man-made.  Much like with Dyed-In-The-Wool, I am intrigued by the breakdown of a once heavily used and well maintained structure that has been reclaimed in a way by the natural environment.  Its next stage of life - succession.

In addition to "Succession", I have also been working on a collaboration with an artist who I very much admire and who shares my affinity for tiny woodland organisms, Sarah Hearn.  She is creating several small lichen installations and we have worked together on one of them, which I'm very excited to see in its final state.

The images in this post are just some recent progress shots.  The opening is this Friday, March 11th at 6 PM, and the exhibit will be up through May 10th!