Phosphorescent Fungi

2016

For a site-specific installation I sculpted a series of eleven mushrooms from wood. For the mushroom caps, I glued and clamped a pair of poplar blocks to create a form that I could chisel the shape from. Creating a disc jig helped with this process. I hollowed the cap on a drill press and used thin wood strips discarded from a table saw to make wooden gills under the caps. I gathered some found wood branches that were satisfyingly twisted, spoke shaved them, and sanded them before attaching them to the underside of the caps.

My next step after sanding them completely smooth (a process spend up with an angle grinder) was to cover them in several layers of white gesso. I wanted them to charge by sunlight, so I filled them with gllow-in-the-dark UV powder and clear epoxy resin.