Mushrooms: The art, design and future of fungi


Strange exhibition at Somerset House looking at how mushrooms have been used to inspire art and what their future is.

Yes, you heard it, an exhibition on mushrooms! Evidently fungi have recently been categorised into their own kingdom, closer to animals that plants and they are thought to underpin all life on earth. In art they have been seen as objects of horror and disgust until they were rehabilitated by Alice in Wonderland.

There was a lovely selection of drawings of mushrooms by Beatrix Potter and a case of Alice in Wonderland archive material. Contemporary art was represented by the wallpaper pattern by Alix Morrison shown here and a series of prints by Cy Twombly and I loved Amanda Cobbett’s small sculptures of mushrooms made of 3D embroidery.

The last room looked at the future of mushrooms including some building blocks partly made from them and a look at their use in medicine. 

Closes 26 April 2020

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