Polypores

For the second annual Arts Week at Sou'Wester Lodge, I created an installation inspired by polypores--fungi that grow in a shelf-like formation on trees. They were magnetically attached all around the Bluebird bus where I lived and worked for this residency.



Regionally, polypores play a very significant role in nutrient cycling and carbon dioxide production of forest ecosystems. Polypores are much more diverse in old natural forests with abundant dead wood than in younger managed forests. Consequently, a number of species have declined drastically and are under threat of extinction due to logging and deforestation. I'm also interested in this theme because one particular polypore species is harvested by artists because the surface can be used as a substrate for drawing.

​Photographs by Kamala Dolphin-Kingsley