False Mycelium

False Mycelium explores the increasingly ambiguous relationship between natural and synthetic forms. Constructed from discarded shoelaces, dressmakers' pins, heather and stone, the work draws upon the visual language of fungal networks and root systems while remaining entirely artificial in its construction.

Radiating across the surface of a weathered stone, the melted shoelaces mimic the growth patterns of mycelium, the underground networks through which fungi communicate, exchange nutrients and sustain ecological relationships. Yet this apparent life is deceptive. The structure is formed from petrochemical fibres, materials commonly found in everyday clothing and footwear that increasingly persist within soils, waterways and geological formations.

The work is informed by emerging evidence of plastics becoming incorporated into sedimentary processes, contributing to new hybrid materials such as plastistones. Here, synthetic matter appears to colonise the rock surface, suggesting a speculative ecology in which manufactured materials become embedded within geological time.

Hovering between beauty and unease, False Mycelium reflects upon the capacity of synthetic materials to imitate living systems while simultaneously disrupting them. The work considers how petrochemical matter has become entangled within contemporary environments, producing new and often troubling relationships between nature, manufacture and the geological record.