Through a series of workshops, conversations and performances, becoming fungi, becoming forest revealed human entanglements in this shimmering ‘biome’ of interacting beings and systems (humans, fungi, trees, microbes, and other life), on scales from massive to microscopic.
Expertly led by Carolyn Deby of sirenscrossing and performed by myself, Camilla Nelson, Jia-Yu Corti, Katye Coe, Rosie Harris, Debra Salem, Mary Savvy, Tom Simkins and Jamie McCarthy (who also composed the music).
Co-commissioned by Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 and Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art 2021, becoming fungi, becoming forest: performing the mycelial city culminated with a series of audience experiences (performances) in Coventry in early December 2021.
These performances were site specific: audiences walked slowly in four small groups of 25 people, passing through a series of sites and ‘scenes’ in central Coventry. Each audience group departed from a unique starting location and moved through the cycle of sites in a different sequence to the other groups. The starting locations/sites were secret, revealed to audience members the night before they embarked on their adventure.
Eventually, all four audience groups converged on a disused, multi-story car park where they walked up and up through the levels, drawn by the sound of polyphonic singing – human voices performing the shifting, branching and fusing liveliness of mycelial entanglement. Finally, near the top of the car park, the audience were surrounded by the singers and the singing, where the sound reached a peak and then gently deliquesced.
For a piece of these performances, I built/grew a living immersive installation in a former office block on Hertford Street, which I became a living, breathing part of each evening.
I led a number of workshops as part of becoming fungi, becoming forest, in advance of the performances. These included Eat Your Words: Growing Mushrooms on Recycled Books & Deliquescence Delight: Making Ink from Mushrooms, which took place at the Herbert Art Gallery.
becoming fungi, becoming forest’s creative residency in Coventry during Autumn 2021 was launched on 2 October with a live and live-streamed panel discussion between sirenscrossing artists and biologist Merlin Sheldrake. Merlin’s book Entangled Life was a key inspiration for becoming fungi, becoming forest and it was a real pleasure to have this opportunity to explore together the convergences between science and art. You can watch the recording below, as well as a recording of the performance element of becoming fungi, becoming forest and an interview that I did with the team at Coventry City of Culture.