Mycophilia – an exhibition by Louise Short

This opens on Thursday April 17^th (and runs to May 31^st 2014, 11am -4pm Thurs-Sat) at Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum Off-site projects, Aberystwyth. The official opening is on Friday 25 April and I am delighted to have been invited to give the opening speech at this. Louise and I have been friends for many years; she is both a special person and a rather amazing artist.

Here’s a bit more about the work:
Louise Short presents an exhibition and associated events as an experimental expedition into how an art installation can inspire new interpretations of the natural world and the unconscious. The Ceredigion landscape became a source of intense interest to Louise when during late summer 2013 the forests and meadows of the Cwm Rheidol Valley bloomed with a huge variety of fungi. Over the past six months a vast collection of fungi casts have been made, involving hundreds of hours walking, foraging, identifying and painstaking mould making. Her work has involved meeting mycologists and enthusiasts who are contributing to the research which will involve awareness-raising and interactive responses to environmental, culinary, scientific, mythical and cultural interpretations of fungi. The mission is to fuse the local environment with personal responses through the most misunderstood organisms surrounding us.