Fungi in art

Mushroom picking (c. 1860), a painting depicting mushroom hunting by realist Polish artist Franciszek Kostrzewski (1826–1911).

Visual artists representing mushrooms have been very prolific throughout history. The Registry of Mushrooms in Works of Art, from the North American Mycological Association, curates an extensive virtual collection of mushrooms in the visual arts.[14] According to the registry, whereas examples before the 15th century are rare, examples abound from European visual arts from 1500 onwards including periods such as the Renaissance, the Baroque, Flemish, and Romantic periods.[14]

The shaggy ink cap (Coprinus comatus) and the common ink cap (Coprinus atramentaria) mushrooms produce black ink which is used in drawing, illustration, and calligraphy.[15][16]

Mushrooms have been found in art traditions around the world, including in western and non-western works.[17] Ranging throughout those cultures, works of art that depict mushrooms can be found in ancient and contemporary times. Often, symbolic associations can also be given to the mushrooms depicted in the works of art. For instance, in Mayan culture, mushroom stones have been found that depict faces in a dreamlike or trance-like expression,[18] which could signify the importance of mushrooms giving hallucinations or trances. Another example of mushrooms in Mayan culture deals with their codices, some of which might have depicted hallucinogenic mushrooms.[19] Other examples of mushroom usage in art from various cultures include the Pegtymel petroglyphs of Russia and Japanese Netsuke figurines.[17]

Artists, painters, illustrators, naturalists and scientists have depicted mushrooms in their artworks for millennia. Edible species like Caesar's mushroom (Amanita caesarea) and the King bolete (Boletus edulis) are more commonly depicted than toxic ones. Mushrooms abound in Italian, Flemish, Germanic, and Dutch Baroque landscapes and still lifes. Landscape paintings involving mushrooms occasionally depict mushroom or truffle hunting.[14]

Whereas historical British artworks tend to be considered to be influenced by a 'mycophobe' attitude, 19th-century Victorian fairy paintings depicting imaginary scenes involving fairies and other fantastic creatures often featured mushrooms. A great number of Victorian-era illustrators and children-book authors depicted mushrooms in their artworks, including Beatrix Potter, Hilda Boswell, Molly Brett, Arthur Rackham, Charles Robinson, and Cicely Mary Barker.[11]

Illustration of the fungus Dumontinia tuberosa by physician, mycologist, and illustrator Charles Tulasne (1816–1884) in the book Selecta Fungorum Carpologia (1861–65). (Name of the original work: Peziza tuberosa parasite on Anemone nemorosa)

Visual artists who depicted mushrooms include:

• Lewis David von Schweinitz (1780–1834): illustrations of over 1000 fungal species which along with his contribution to mycology earned him the title of "Father of North American Mycology".[20][21]
• Charles Tulasne (1816–1884)
• Mary Elizabeth Banning (1822–1903): Mary Banning is best known as the author of The Fungi of Maryland, an unpublished manuscript containing scientific descriptions, mycological anecdotes, and 174 13" by 15" watercolor paintings of fungal species.[22] The New York State Museum describes these paintings as "extraordinary...a blend of science and folk art, scientifically accurate and lovely to look at."[23]
• Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919)
• Violetta White Delafield (1875-1949): creations of around 600 illustrations of fungi.[24][25] Delafield created hundreds of annotated watercolors of fungi and plants, noted for their level of detail; she made a note of the collection location, a detailed specimen description and analysed the cellular structure of the fungus with the help of a microscope.[26] Her extensive illustrations are particularly significant as fungal specimens tend to deteriorate soon after collection and would often change their colour and form. Delafield's significant collection of specimen was left to the Fungal Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden, her papers and research materials on mycology and horticulture are held with the Delafield family papers by the University of Princeton.[27] A selection of her work was exhibited in 2019 at Bard College as part of the ‘Fruiting Bodies’ exhibition and has been preserved in a digital collection.[28]
• Alexander Viazmensky

Amateur and professional photographs of mushrooms abound on the Internet. Non-fiction books about fungi, especially those involving the identification of fungi, often include photographs of fungal species and their fruiting bodies. The book by Scott Chimileski and Roberto Kolter Life at the Edge of Sight: A Photographic Exploration of the Microbial World showcases 'the invisible world waiting in plain sight,' including fungi.[29] Since 2005, the North American Mycological Association (NAMA) organises an annual Photography Art Contest on mushrooms and fungi.[30][31]

Works of literary fiction involving mushrooms and fungi are often linked to infection, decay, toxicity, mystery, fantasy, and ambiguity, and thus have mostly a negative connotation.[11] Examples of mushrooms depicted or involved in a positive way include:

• the children's book The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (1954) by Eleanor Cameron[32]
• the science-fiction novel Omnivore (1968) by Piers Anthony (part of the Of Man and Manta trilogy)[33]
• The Way Through the Woods: On Mushrooms and Mourning (2019) by Long Litt Woon.[34]

In line with the assumption by Robert Gordon Wasson and Valentina Pavlovna Wasson that Russian society traditionally has more affinity to mushrooms,[5] a scene of mushroom foraging in Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is associated with love, family, and a sense of commonality.[5][11] During the Victorian era, fungi started to acquire a more playful, childish, or jolly role in works of literary fiction.[11] The author, artist, illustrator, and mycologist Beatrix Potter created meticulous and accurate illustrations of mushrooms, including in her children-book series of Peter Rabbit.[11]

Authors who have used fungi as a plot device include:[35]

• Percy Shelley
• D.H. Lawrence
• H.G. Wells
• Ray Bradbury

Fungi are a common trope in science fiction, horror, supernatural, fantasy and crime fiction. In Ray Bradbury's "Come into My Cellar", mushrooms are alien invaders threatening society. The short story is one of the rare examples in which several forms of fungi appear (spores and mushrooms): In the story, an alien form of spores from fungi lands on Earth and compels humans, and kids in particular, to grow mushrooms and infect more persons, thus using humans as a medium of propagation of fungi through mind control.[36] Fungi have occasionally appeared in the murder mystery literature due to their toxicity. Crime and detective writer Agatha Christie has used mushrooms as murder weapons in her crime fiction.[11]

The use of (toxic) mushrooms in fiction does not often reflect reality, either because a misidentified species is used (for example, a non-toxic one), because the preparation or intake of the toxic is wrong (for example, when not enough toxin is present, or when it should be deactivated by cooking), or because the progress of poisoning is unrealistic (for example, if the toxin kills too quickly).[7][37]

The "Bad Bug Bookclub" at Manchester Metropolitan University is a regular book club run by Joanna Verran that discusses literary works on microorganisms, including fungi.[38] The quarterly periodical FUNGI Magazine runs a column called Bookshelf Fungi reviewing fiction and non-fiction books on fungi.

In Western culture poetry, as in literature, fungi are often associated with negative feelings or sentiments. The poem The Mushroom (1896) by Emily Dickinson is unsympathetic towards mushrooms. American author of weird horror and supernatural fiction H. P. Lovecraft created a collection of cosmic horror sonnets with fungi as subjects called Fungi from Yuggoth (1929–30). Margaret Atwood's poem Mushrooms (1981) explores the topics of the life cycle and nature. The poem by Neil Gaiman, The Mushroom Hunters, is a poem touching, through the lens of mushroom hunting throughout history, on the topics of womanhood, human creation, and destruction. The poem was written for 'Universe in Verse,' a festival combining science with poetry, and won the Rhysling Award for best long poem in 2017. The poem features in a short animated video with the voice-over of Amanda Palmer.[39]

Several hundred Japanese haiku are about mushroom hunting. Many of them were written by poets of the Nara, Edo and Meiji periods,[40] such as:

• Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694)
• Kitamura Koshun (1650–1697)
• Mukai Kyorai (1651–1704)
• Naitō Jōsō (1662–1704)
• Hattori Ransetsu (1654–1707)
• Takarai Kikaku (1661–1707)
• Hirose Izen (1688?–1711)
• Morikawa Kyoriku (1656–1715)
• Yamaguchi Sodō (1642–1716)
• Kagami Shikō (1665–1731)
• Kumotsu Suikoku (1682–1734)
• Kuroyanagi Shōha (1727–1772)

Through storytelling and oral tradition, fungi have influenced mythology, folklore, and religions across civilizations and historical periods.[7] The psychoactive properties of certain fungi have contributed to the involvement of fungi in myth and folklore.[41] In her essay Jesus if a Fungal God, author Sophie Strand writes:

"As we learn more about fungi, let us embrace that they have always been here. Beneath our feet. And inside our most popular myths.".[42]

A gnome carries the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) on a German Christmas greeting card (c. 1900) saying Viel Glück im neuen Jahre! (transl. All the best for the new year!). The fly agaric has inspired countless folklore tales and entered mainstream mushroom culture.

The painting Judas Hangs Himself (ca. 1890) by James Tissot. The naming of mushrooms has been inspired by folklore. The common naming of the 'jelly ear' fungus (Auricularia auricula-judae) is 'Jew's ear,' derived from the belief that Judas Iscariot hanged himself on an elder tree, where the fungus often grows.

There are numerous deities associated with wine and beer, which is an indirect effect of fungi in the arts. Fungi play a role in several religions, for example through fermentation (e.g. wine) and leavening (e.g. bread). In the Parable of the Leaven, one of the Parables of Jesus, the growth of the Kingdom of God is akin to the leavening of bread through yeast. According to Matthew 13:33 (and, similarly, to Luke 13:20-21):

"He told them still another parable: 'The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.'"[43]

However, yeast is associated with corruption in other passages of the New Testament, as in Luke 12:1:

"Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: 'Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.'"[44]

Some scholars argue that the Egyptian God of the afterlife Osiris is a personification of entheogenic mushrooms. As evidence, they indicate that Egyptian crowns are shaped like primordia of Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms. The Egyptian tale known as Cheops and the Magicians illustrates the growth of mushrooms on barley.[45] In the Chinese classic tale The Mountain and the Sea, the soul of a young woman becomes a mushroom as a symbol of immortality. In Lithuanian and Baltic mythology, fungi are considered the fingers of Velnias, the God of the underworld, reaching up from the underground to feed the poor.[7] In Slovenia, there is a folk ritual to roll on the ground during thunder as a way to increase the amount of mushrooms harvested.[46] Baltic and Ugric religions include mushroom elements, including a "Mother of Mushrooms". The popular tale The War of the Mushrooms is told in several Slavic cultures. (After the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, an exhibition at the Ukrainian Museum in New York revisited the classic story in light of current events.[47]) The supernatural being Baba Yaga in Slavic folklore is often associated with mushrooms. In some Russian tales, it often appears as a villainous wizard called Mukhomor, literally 'poison mushroom,' which is assumed to be derived from the fly agaric.[12][48]

The fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a mushroom with characteristic red cap and white dots and has greatly infiltrated folklore with mainstream popularity.

According to several interpretations, the legendary figure of Santa Claus may have been influenced by the fly agaric; evidence includes the use by Saami shamans in the Lapland region, who would visit the homes of people by reindeer-drawn sleds and enter through the chimney when the entrance door was stuck by snowfalls; the fondness of reindeers in eating fly agaric mushrooms; the belief by Saami people that whoever eats an Amanita muscaria will resemble it, becoming among other things, plump and reddish; and the sense of flying that consumption of fly agaric might induce.[49]

The stinkhorn Phallus indusiatus (or "veiled lady") has entered folklore across many cultures, probably due to its peculiar shape. In French, P. indusiatus is commonly called le satyre voilé ('the veiled satyr,' from the male nature spirit in Greek mythology). According to ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson, P. indusiatus was consumed in Mexican divinatory ceremonies on account of its suggestive shape. On the other side of the globe, New Guinea natives consider the mushroom sacred.[50] In Nigeria, the mushroom is one of several stinkhorns given the name Akufodewa by the Yoruba people. The name is derived from a combination of the Yoruba words ku ("die"), fun ("for"), ode ("hunter"), and wa ("search"), and refers to how the mushroom's stench can attract hunters who mistake its odour for that of a dead animal.[51] The Yoruba have been reported to have used it as a component of a charm to make hunters less visible in times of danger. In other parts of Nigeria, they have been used in the preparation of harmful charms by ethnic groups such as the Urhobo and the Ibibio people. The Igbo people of east-central Nigeria called stinkhorns éró ḿma, from the Igbo words for "mushroom" and "beauty".[52]

Jews have a long tradition of eating mushrooms, which are considered Kosher in Jewish dietary law, and mushrooms have been referred to as "Jew's Meat" at least in parts of current Germany (Rhineland area), where the term is used as a dialect term for the German "Pilz" according to the Rheinisches Wörterbuch.[53] Mushrooms have been used as an instrument for anti-Semitic discrimination or propaganda over the centuries. This has a disparaging connotation, especially during the Middle Ages, when mushrooms were considered toxic and disgusting. In the infamous 1938 children-book Der Giftpilz (transl. The poisonous mushroom) from Nazi Germany, Jews are depicted as poisonous and difficult to distinguish from 'Gentiles'.[54]

There is a large corpus of literature on mushrooms, including foraging, identifying, growing, and cultivating fungi. The book The Mushroom at the End of the World by Chinese-American anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing on matsutake mushrooms offers insights into the cultural relevance and the significance of fungi for modern society, circularity, and decay.[55] Authors of non-fictional books about fungi contribute to the increased popularity and development of mycology, fungal ecology, mycoremediation, fungal conservation, biocontrol, medicinal fungi, mushroom gathering and identification, and fungal research.[56][57][58][59]

The experimental short movie Beneath by Beth Walker (UK), presented at 2022 Fungi Film Festival.

The comedy short movie Shroom Mates by Rosie Windsor (UK), presented at 2022 Fungi Film Festival.

Adaptations of literary fiction about fungi into motion pictures include the 2016 British post-apocalyptic science fiction horror movie The Girl with All the Gifts, based on the novel with the same title; and the 1963 Japanese horror film Matango (マタンゴ) directed by Ishirō Honda, partially based on William Hope Hodgson's short story The Voice in the Night (1907). The documentary Fantastic Fungi (2019), primarily led by mycologist Paul Stamets, presents the world of fungi using time-lapse photography.[60] The documentary The Mushroom Speaks (2001) by Marion Neumann covers topics such as decay, bioremediation, and symbiosis by following scientists, experts, and fungal pioneers.[61]

Film festivals dedicated to fungi include the Fungi Film Festival (since 2021), by Radical Mycology author Peter McCoy;[62] and the UK Fungus Day Film Festival (since 2022), by the British Mycological Society.[63]

The American stand-up comedian and satirist Bill Hicks drew inspiration from Terence McKenna's 'Stoned Ape Theory' (that psilocybin was crucial in the development of human nature[64]) in his 1993 show Revelation.[7][65]

In The Smurfs, smurfs inhabit houses resembling mushrooms. American fantasy and science fiction comic book artist Frank Frazetta illustrated the cover image of the 1964 edition of the novel The Secret People (1935) by John Beynon (pseudonym of John Wyndham), in which fictive 'little people' inhabit areas with giant mushrooms. In Nintendo's Super Mario video game, the 'super mushroom' helps the character grow in size.[11] The video game franchise The Last of Us is set in a post-apocalyptic United States, after spores of a mutant fungus wiped out humanity, turning infected people into zombies. Other video games where mushrooms appear include Skyrim (2011), Stardew Valley (2016), and Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017).[66]

Mushrooms have an influence on music as a subject, cultural reference, or medium for music creation. Numerous musicians, bands, composers, and lyricists mentioned or drew inspiration from fungi. Music can be created utilizing fungi, as in the process of bio-sonification. American composer John Cage (1912–1992) was an enthusiastic amateur mycologist and co-founder of the New York Mycological Society who often merged his two passions in his artworks.[67]

Numerous musicians, bands, composers, and lyricists mentioned or drew inspiration from fungi, like the Israeli psychedelic trance band Infected Mushroom, the US heavy metal band Mushroomhead, Russian romantic composer Modest Mussorgsky's (1839-1881) song Gathering Mushrooms, Igor Stravinsky's (1882-1971) How the Mushrooms went to War, and many more.[7] In Women Gathering Mushrooms, the musicologist Louis Sarno (1954-2017) recorded women from the Central Africa Mbenga pygmy tribe of the Aka (also Biaka, Bayaka, Babenzele) sideclinging while collecting mushrooms, resulting in a polyphonic composition. According to mycologist and author Merlin Sheldrake, the activity of the gatherers above ground mirrors the fungal life below ground, as "mycelium is polyphony in bodily form".[68] Icelandic avant-garde musician Björk's 2022 album Fossora (including tracks such as Mycelia, Sorrowful Soil, and Fungal City) is referred to as her "mushroom album".[69] 'Fossora' can be translated from Latin into "she who digs".[70][71] The rap artist 'FungiFlows' composes lyrics inspired by fungi and mushrooms while wearing a fly-agaric-shaped hat.[72] The Czech composer and mycologist Václav Hálek (1937–2014) is said to have composed over 1,500 symphonies inspired by fungi, including the composition called Mycosymphony.[7][73]

A non-exhaustive list of songs inspired by mushrooms (fungi) is given below:

• Mushroom Cantata by Lepo Sumera
• Mycosymphony by Václav Hálek
• Solar Waltz (2018) by Cosmo Sheldrake
• Fungus (2021) by The Narcissist Cookbook
• Mycelia (2022) by Björk
• Fungal City (2022) by Björk

Fungi are occasionally a direct medium for the creation of music. With the use of sonification and synthezisers, musicians and bioartists are able to create sounds and music by converting mushrooms' bioelectric signals.[74][75][76] The 'Nanotopia Midnight Mushroom Music' is a radio station devoted to streaming mushroom-generated music. Some artists creating music by sonicating mushrooms note that different mushrooms produce different sounds: for example, Ganoderma lucidum produces melodic sounds, while Pleurotus ostreatus produces constant sounds.[77]

The Porter's Lodge pavilion at the entrance of Park Güell features a lookout tower with a mushroom-shaped dome.

In architecture and sculpture, mushrooms are mostly represented or showcased. Mushrooms are carved in buildings or depicted in sculptures or potteries, like pre-Columbian pottery mushrooms from Mesoamerica.[78][79] At the entrance of Park Güell by Catalan modernist architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926), the Porter's Lodge pavilion features a lookout tower with a mushroom-shaped dome, probably inspired by Amanita muscaria or by stinkhorns.[80][81] The sculpture Triple Mycomorph by Bernard Reynolds (1915–1997) at Christchurch Mansion holds a resemblance with the stinkhorn mushroom Phallus indusiatus.[82] Mushrooms are occasionally showcased by artists who collect, manipulate, preserve, and exhibit them, as in the 'Mind The Fungi' exhibition (2019-2020) at Futurium in Berlin (Germany).[83][84][85]

The mycologist William Dillon Weston (1899-1953; sometimes also spelled Dillon-Weston[86]) created glass sculptures of microfungi, mostly plant pathogens, to fight bouts of insomnia. The artworks represent either magnified fungi (usually up to 400X times for fungi; up to 1200X for spores) or real-size plants affected by fungi (like in Ustilago maydis and Phytophthora infestans) and are made mostly of transparent or opaque glass. The sculptures are mostly between 5–20 cm in size and often do not have a base and stand on the mycelium.[87] Almost a hundred glass sculptures are conserved at the Whipple Museum in Cambridge (UK). Fungi represented are among others species from the genera Alternaria, Botrytis, Penicillium, Cordyceps, Sclerotinia, Fusarium, Puccinia as well as spores (ascospores, basidiospores).[88][89] The other known example of glass sculptures representing (among others) fungi is the Blaschka Glass Flowers at Harvard Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts (US).[88]

Fungi enter cuisine mostly as fruiting bodies (mushrooms), yeasts, or moulds. Mushrooms are a source of protein, a staple in many cultures and cuisines, and a common ingredient in many recipes worldwide. The North American Mycological Association (NAMA) hosts a series of resources to encourage all aspects of 'mycophagy.' Most mushrooms sold commercially are the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), commonly known as champignons. Many mushrooms, including some coveted in haute cuisine, like truffles and boletus, cannot be cultivated and need to be harvested. Due to their dietary properties and their suitability as a meat substitute, mushrooms can be considered a novel trend, including the cultivation and consumption of species that only recently became popular in cooking, like Cordyceps.[90][91][92] Many fungi are considered delicacies in cuisine and gastronomy. Truffles, which are occasionally confused with tubers (storage organs in plants, like potatoes), are subterranean fruiting bodies (that is, mushrooms that grow below ground) of certain fungi belonging to the genera Tuber, Geopora, Peziza, Choiromyces, and others. Truffles have developed a distinctive aroma as a spore-dispersion strategy: Instead of relying on wind and other mechanical means, truffles attract animals that eat them and carry their spores to new locations after defecation.[15] Both the mushroom and the black ink of C. comatus and Coprinopsis atramentaria (the 'Common ink cap') are edible, but adverse effects might be felt if consumed together with alcohol. For this reason, C. atramentaria is also called "tippler's bane".[7]

Infection of maize corn with the plant pathogen Ustilago maydis leads to a tumor in the plant, which is consumed as a delicacy in Mexico (called huitlacoche).

Contemporary artworks involving fungi usually handle or utilize mycelia, yeasts, and other fungal forms rather than mushrooms. Fungi are occasionally used conceptually (that is, to communicate their capabilities and potential).[93] The video and light artist Philipp Frank creates so-called 'projection mapping' by casting light effects on mushrooms growing in nature in the 'Funky Funghy' project.[94][95]

Plant pathology scientist Lisa Vaillancourt at the University of Kentucky developed a 'Fungal Mating Game' based on standard card decks as an educational tool for students to better understand the process and concept of fungal mating using the mating of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast), Neurospora crassa, Ustilago maydis, and Schizophyllum commune as an example. The game can be played both collaboratively and competitively.[96][97]

Particular from The Temptation of St. Anthony by Matthias Grünewald (1512-1516) showing a sufferer from ergotism, an ailment also called St. Anthony's Fire caused by ergotamine, a fungal toxin present in the plant pathogenic fungus Claviceps purpurea.

The German Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald (c. 1470–1528) depicted in The Temptation of St. Anthony (1512-1516) a sufferer from ergotism, also referred to as St. Anthony's Fire. Ergotism is caused by the ingestion of sclerotia (hardened mycelium) of Claviceps purpurea, a fungal endophyte infecting rye and other plants. Ergotism is caused by the consumption of rye and other food contaminated with the sclerotia of the fungus, as in flour. Bread from contaminated flour looks black due to the sclerotia. The mycelium contains the fungal alkaloid ergotamine, a potent neurotoxin that can cause convulsions, cramps, gangrene of the extremities, hallucinations, and further adverse and potentially lethal effects depending on dosage. Ergotamine is a precursor molecule in the synthesis of psychedelic drug LSD.[79]

Examples of hypha and mycelium influence in music are scarce. In her mushroom-inspired album Fossora (2022), Icelandic avant-garde musician Björk included tracks such as Mycelia and Fungal City. Fungi might have a direct influence on musical instruments. The process of wood spalting is often used as an aesthetic element, e.g. in the manufacturing of guitar bodies. The luthier Rachel Rosenkrantz experiments with fungi (mycelium) to create 'Mycocast,' a guitar body made of fungal biomass due to the acoustic properties of mycelium and its growth plasticity (i.e. the ability to take virtually any shape upon being cast in a desired form).[101] According to an interpretation, violins from wood infiltrated by mycelia of the fungus Xylaria polymorpha (commonly called 'dead man's fingers') produce sounds close to those from a Stradivarius violin.[7] Researchers are investigating the use of fungi to the species Physisporinus vitreus and Xylaria longipes in controlled wood decay experiments to create wood with superior qualities for musical instruments.[102][103][104] In some cases, music generation using fungi is conceptual, as in Psychotropic house (2015) and Mycomorph lab (2016) of the Zooetic Pavillion by the Urbonas Studio based in Vilnus (Lithuania) and Cambridge (Massachusetts), in which a mycelial structure is designed to act as an amplifier for sounds from nature mixed into loops.[105][106]

Direct applications of fungi in architecture (as well as design and fashion) often start with artistic experimentations with fungi.[83][107][108] Mycelium is being investigated and developed by researchers and companies into a sustainable packaging solution as an alternative to polystyrene.[109] Mycelium as a working matter in sculptures is attracting interest from artists working in the contemporary arts.[13]

Early experimentations by artists with mycelia have been exhibited at the New York Museum of Modern Art.[110] Experimentations with fungi as components– and not only as contaminants or degraders of buildings – started around 1950.[111] Collaborations between scientists, artists, and society at large are investigating and developing mycelium-based structures as building materials.[112] Use of fungi from the genera Ganoderma, Fomes, Trametes, Pycnoporus, or Perenniporia (and more) in architecture include applications such as concrete replacement, 3D printing, soundproof elements, insulation, biofiltration, and self-sustaining, self-repairing structures.[113][114][115][116]

Besides the study of fungi for their beneficial application in architecture, risk assessments investigate the potential risk fungi can pose with regard to human and environmental health, including pathogenicity, mycotoxin production, insect attraction through volatile compounds, or invasiveness.[117]

Artificial leather made from fungal mycelium. (A) Reishi™ from Mycoworks; (B) Mylea™ from Mycotech Lab; (C) Mylo™ from Bolt threads; (D) mycelium leather from VTT Technical Research Centre (Finland). From Vanderlook et al. (2021).[118]

Historically, ritual masks made of lingzhi mushroom (species from the genera Ganoderma) have been reported in Nepal and indigenous cultures in British Columbia.[12] Fungal mycelia are molded, or rather grown, into sculptures and bio-based materials for product design, including into everyday objects, to raise awareness about circular economics and the impact that petrol-based plastics have on the environment.[119][120] Biotechnology companies like Ecovative Design, MycoWorks, and others are developing mycelium-based materials that can be used in the textile industry. Fashion brands like Adidas, Stella McCartney, and Hermès are introducing vegan alternatives to leather made from mycelium.[121][122][123][124][125][118]

The tinder polypore Fomes fomentarius (materials derived from which are referred to as 'Amadou') has been used by ancestral cultures and civilizations due to its flammable, fibrous, and insect-repellent properties.[7] Amadou was a precious resource to ancient people, allowing them to start a fire by catching sparks from flint struck against iron pyrites. Bits of fungus preserved in peat have been discovered at the Mesolithic site of Star Carr in the UK, modified presumably for this purpose. [126] Remarkable evidence for its utility is provided by the discovery of the 5,000-year-old remains of "Ötzi the Iceman", who carried it on a cross-alpine excursion before his death and subsequent ice-entombment.[127] Amadou has great water-absorbing abilities. It is used in fly fishing for drying out dry flies that have become wet.[128][129] Another use is for forming a felt-like fabric used in the making of hats and other items.[130][131] It can be used as a kind of artificial leather.[132] Mycologist Paul Stamets famously wears a hat made of amadou.[133]

Fungi have been used a biomaterial since many centuries, for example as fungus-based textiles. An early example of such "mycotextiles" comes from the early 20th century: a wall pocket originating from the Tlingit, an Indigenous Population from the Pacific Northwest (US) and displayed as historical artefact at the Dartmouth College's Hood Museum of Art, turned out to be made of mycelium from the tree-decaying agarikon fungus.[134] Fungal mycelia are used as leather-like material (also known as pleather, artificial leather, or synthetic leather), including for high-end fashion design products.[135]

Beside their use in clothing, fungus-based biomaterials are used in packaging and construction.[136] There are several advantages and potentials of using fungus-based materials rather than commonly used ones. These includes the smaller environmental impact compared with the use of animal products; vertical farming, able to decrease land use; the thread-like growth of mycelium, able to be molded into desirable shapes; use of growth substrate derived from agricultural wastes and the recycling of mycelium within the principles of circular economy; and mycelium as self-repairing structures.[137][138][139]

Mushrooms are traditionally the main form of fungi used for direct consumption in the culinary arts. The fermentative abilities of mould and yeasts have a direct influence on a great variety of food products, including products such as beer, wine, sake, kombucha, coffee, soy sauce, tofu, cheese, and chocolate.[140] Recently, mycelium has been increasingly investigated as an innovative food source. The restaurant The Alchemist in Copenhagen (Denmark) experiments with mycelium of fungi such as Aspergillus oryzae, Pletorus (oyster mushroom), and Brettanomyces with funding from the Good Food Institute, to create novel fungus-based dishes, including the creation of mycelium-based seafood and the consumption of raw, fresh mycelium grown on a Petri dish with a nutrient-rich broth.[141] The US-based company Ecovative is creating fungus-based food as a meat alternative, including mycelium-based bacon.[142][143] The US-based company Nature's Fynd is developing various kinds of food products, including meatless patties and cream cheese substitutes, using the so-called 'Fy' protein from Fusarium.[144]

"At this point, I stepped back and let the sculpture sculpt itself."

— Xiaojing Yan, Mythical Mushrooms: Hybrid Perspectives on Transcendental Matters

Hypha and mycelium get attention as working matter in contemporary art due to their growth and plasticity and are used to explore the biological properties of degradation, decomposition, budding ('mushrooming'), and sporulation. An early form of BioArt is Agar art, where various microorganisms (including fungi) are grown on agar plates into desired shapes and colours. Thus, the agar substrate becomes a canvas for microbes, which are an analogue to the artist's colour repertoire (palette). In agar art, fungi (and other microorganisms, mostly bacteria) assume different appearances based on intrinsic characteristics of the fungus (species, morphology, fungal form, pigmentation), as well as external parameters (like inoculation technique, incubation time or temperature, nutrient growth medium, etc.). Microorganisms can also be engineered to produce colours or effects which are not intrinsic to them or are not present in nature (e.g., they are mutant from the wild type), like for example bioluminescence. The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) holds an annual 'Agar Art Contest' which attracts considerable attention and elaborate agar artworks.[145][146] An early 'agar artist' was physician, bacteriologist and Nobel Prize winner Alexander Fleming (1881-1955).[147][148]

The Folk Stone Power Plant (2017), like the Mushroom Power Plant (2019), by Lithuanian artist duo Urbonas Studio, are physical installations based on 'mycoglomerates,' which is an interpretation and representations of vaguely-described microbial symbioses aimed at energy production alternative to fossil fuel.[13][149] The Folk Stone Power Plant is a 'semi-fictional' alternative battery installed in Folkestone (UK) during the Folkestone Triennale, aiming at a reflection about symbioses (both in nature and between artists and scientists) and about unconventional power sources. The design is based on drawings from polymath and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), while the microbial power source, hidden within the stone, mirrors the largely unnoticed, yet crucial, contribution of mycelial networks (that is, mycorrhiza) in ecology.[13]

The Living Color Database (LCDB) links organisms across the tree of life (in particular fungi, bacteria, and archaea) with their natural pigments, the molecules' chemistry, biosynthesis, and colour index data (HEX, RGB, and Pantone), and the corresponding scientific literature. From Sharma & Meyer (2022).[150]

In Chinese-Canadian artist Xiaojing Yan's work, Linghzi Girl (2020), female bust statues cast with the mycelium of lingzhi fungus (Ganoderma lingzhi) are exhibited and left to germinate. From the mycelium-based sculptures sprout mushrooms which eventually spread; once ripe, a cocoa-powder dust of spores blooms on the bust, after which the sculptures are preserved by desiccation to stop the fungal cycle and maintain the artwork.[151] Artist Xiaojing Yan thus explains the audience's reaction to her work:

"The uncanny appearance of these busts seems frightening for many viewers. But a Chinese viewer would recognize the lingzhi and immediately become delighted by the discovery."[12]

During an artist-in-residence project The colors of life (2021) at the Techische Universität Berlin (Germany), artist Sunanda Sharma focuses on the fungus Aspergillus niger, and visualises its black pigmentation through fungal melanin by means of video, photography, animation, and time-lapse footage. Within the same residence, the artist created an open-source database The Living Color Database (LCDB), which is an online compendium of biological colors for scientists, artists, and designers. The Living Color Database links organisms across the tree of life (in particular fungi, bacteria, and archaea) with their natural pigments, the molecules' chemistry, biosynthesis, and colour index data (HEX, RGB, and Pantone), and the corresponding scientific literature. The Living Color Database comprises 445 entries from 110 unique pigments and 380 microbial species.[150]

So-called 'spore prints' are created by pressing the underside of a mushroom to a flat surface, either white or coloured, to allow the spores to be imprinted on the sheet. Since some mushrooms can be recognized based on the colour of their spores, spore prints are a diagnostic tool as well as an illustrative technique.[7] Several artists used and modified the technique of spore printing for artistic purposes. Mycologist Sam Ristich exhibited several of his spore prints in an art gallery in Maine around 2005–2008.[7] The North American Mycological Association (NAMA) created a 'how-to guide' for people interested in creating their own spore prints.[153]

The artwork Auspicious Omen – Lingzhi Spore Painting by Chinese-Canadian artist Xiaojing Yan creates abstract compositions resembling traditional Chinese landscapes by fixing spores of the linghzi fungus with acrylic reagents.[151] The linghzi mycelial sculptures by Xiaojing Yan, including Linghzi Girl (2020) and Far From Where You Divined (2017) are allowed to germinate into mushrooms during exhibition, creating a dust of spores raining down on the female busts, children, deer, and rabbits. The artworks are then desiccated for preservation, stopping the fungal growth and the metamorphosis of the sculptures. Artworks as such, including growth of the fungus, an incontrollable transformation of the art object, and several forms in the fungal life cycle, are rare.[12]

The video game franchise The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic, third-person action-adventure game set in North America in the near future after a mutant fungus decimates humanity. The 'fungal apocalypse' is inspired by the effect ant-pathogenic fungi like Ophiocordyceps unilateralis have on their insect prey. The infected zombie-like creatures develop cannibalism after inhaling spores and can transmit the fungal infection to other humans by biting. A television adaptation aired in January 2023. "Come into My Cellar" by Ray Bradbury has been adapted into a comic strip by Dave Gibbon and an adaptation into Italian appeared for the comic series Corto Maltese in 1992 with the name "Vieni nella mia cantina".[154]

The musical theatre show The Mould That Changed the World is a show running both in the US (in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia) and the UK (in Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland) which centers around the life and legacy of Alexander Fleming, the Scottish discoverer of the antibiotic penicillin and 1945 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine.[167][168] Alexander Fleming discovered in 1928 during his work as bacteriologist that bacteria growing on a Petri dish were inhibited by a mould contamination, namely from a fungus of the genus Penicillium, from which the antibiotic name 'penicillin' derives. The story involves jumps in time to highlight the legacy of the discovery of antibiotics and is partly set during the Great War, when Alexander Fleming served as a private, as well as the personification of some characters (e.g. Mother Earth). The musical has been developed for educational purposes to raise awareness against the tremendous, worldwide threat that the rise of antimicrobial resistance poses.[169][170] The musical provides teaching resources[167] and has been developed with the participation of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC).[168] The musical choir is composed of both professional singers and actors as well as health care professionals, lab technicians, and scientists, and is an example of an artistic project merging science and the arts.[167]

The dance contest for scientists called 'Dance your Ph.D.' sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an annual competition established in 2008 encouraging communication and education of complex scientific topics through interpretative dance. All scientific fields and areas of research are covered (biology, chemistry, physics, and social science), and several contestant entries involved fungi, including some winners. The 2014 winner was plant pathologist and aerial acrobat Uma Nagendra from the University of Georgia (Athens) with Plant-Soil Feedbacks After Severe Tornado Damage, a trapeze-circus dance representing the effect of extreme environmental events (like tornadoes) on tree seedlings and the positive effect those events can have with regard to withstanding phytopathogenic fungi.[171] The 2022 winner was Lithuanian scientist Povilas Šimonis from Vilnius University with Electroporation of Yeast Cells, a dance illustrating the effect of electroporation (a method involving pulses of electricity to deactivate cells, or make them more porous and prone to acquire extracellular DNA, a crucial step in genetic engineering) on yeasts.[172]

In the contemporary arts, works involving fungi are often interactive and/or performative and tend to transform and utilize fungi rather than merely represent and showcase them.[173] In her work, Myconnect (2013), bioartist Saša Spačal invites the audience to interact with the artwork, involving Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) or Oyster mushrooms (from the genus Pleurotus), which takes the form of a capsule connecting the human with the fungus on a sensory level.[173] Bioartists use yeasts to provoke a reflection on genetic engineering. Slovenian intermedia artist Maja Smrekar's created yoghurt using genetically-modified yeast with a gene from the artist herself in Maya Yoghurt (2012).[174] In 2015, the blogger and feminist Zoe Stavri baked sourdough bread using yeast she isolated from her own vaginal yeast infection using a Dildo, which she then mixed with flour and water and let leaven, and finally ate.[175][176][177] The activity, which she documented both on her blog posts and on social media, tagging it with the hashtag #cuntsourdough, caused a lot of discussion on social media, including repulsion, hate messages, and food safety concerns, as the practice did not involve axenic isolation of the leavening yeast; however, during baking, microorganisms present in the dough are most probably heat deactivated and thus harmless.[175] As the activist herself noted: "People have been making and eating sourdough [with wild yeasts] for millennia."[178] People had experimented before with microorganisms from the vaginal microbiota to create food and incite a reflection on the topic of food fermentation and female bodily autonomy and self-determination.

In 'Fungal Dot Painting,' fungal conidia are inoculated into agar droplets, deposited on a black (acrylic glass) surface, and incubated to allow fungal growth. The results resemble pointillism. From Grunwald et al. (2021).[179]

In 'Etched Fungal Art,' an acrylic glass surface modified by etching (lathing or printmaking) is poured over with a suspension of fungal conidia in an agar-based substrate and then incubated to permit fungal growth into the etched channels. From Grunwald et al. (2021).[179]

The exhibition Fermenting Futures (2022) by bioartists Alex May and Anna Dumitriu in collaboration with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) is an artwork focusing on the role of yeast biotechnology confronting global issues of contemporary society. The artist cultured and showcased fermentation flasks of Pichia pastoris used for the bioconversion of carbon dioxide into biodegradable plastics. The artwork The Bioarchaeology of Yeast recreates by moulding the biodeterioration marks left by certain yeasts, like black yeasts, on work of art and sculptures, and displays them as aesthetic objects, reflecting on the process of erosion; the installation Culture used CRISPR technology to confer to a non-fermenting strain of Pichia pastoris the ability to ferment and work as a leavening agent as the baker's yeast.[180][181] A team of artists and researchers developed novel art techniques using the model (that is, widely studied in laboratory research) mould Aspergillus nidulans. The artist-scientist team described the development of two new techniques: 'Fungal Dot Painting' and 'Etched Fungal Art.' In Fungal Dot Painting, akin to pointillism where small dots unite to compose an image, fungal conidia are inoculated into agar droplets which are then deposited on a dark surface of black acrylic glass for contrast, and incubated at the desired condition to allow fungal growth. In 'Etched Fungal Art', an acrylic glass surface modified by etching (lathing or printmaking) is poured over with a suspension of fungal conidia in an agar-based substrate, and then incubated to permit fungal growth into the etched channels. Both art forms allow for temporal dynamism, insofar as being composed of living fungal organisms they change and evolve over time.[179]