Unus Mundus at Nature Unframed

There is now a cluster of honey mushrooms growing along the Dogwood Trail at the Huntsville Botanical Garden.

Unus Mundus is five steel Fungiphone drums, a scatter of hypertufa toadstools, a set of tuned chimes, and a line of botanically dyed silk flags carrying intentions people who made them. It is one of four installations selected for the Garden’s inaugural Nature Unframed exhibit, alongside work by Chris Boyd Taylor, Eric Nubbe, and Ari and Steve Loucks.

Jennifer with Unus Mundus, and her friend Jhane jamming on the fungiphones.

Unus Mundus is Jung’s term, borrowed from the alchemists, for the one underlying world that all our separate inner worlds surface from. Mushrooms are a metaphor for this, What you see above ground are discrete fruiting bodies that look like individuals. What is actually happening is a single network passing signals between trees, invisible, enormous, older than the clearing. Visitors who have never heard of the collective unconscious when their sounds come together while engaging with the work.

This interactive sound installation was made possible by a generous grant from the Huntsville Botanical Garden and several friends who helped along the way:

Jim Doble of Elemental Design to whom I subcontracted the fabrication of the fungiphones, according to my color, size, and musical specifications.

Dr. Alison Webb of Ecology of Color who carried the day with her expertise at our intention flag workshop.

Ronnie Marion Jr., my partner in life and here at Alchemized Art LLC, who assisted with the hypertufa labor and hefty lifting at the installation.

Thanks also to Dr. Kevin D. Kelleher and Dr. João Beira at Athens State, Jarrett Anderson who pitched in with the concrete and installation, and to everyone at the Garden staff, who helped a new friend bring some mushrooms to their trail.

Unus Mundus is on view through October 31 and included with Garden admission. Go play it with somebody.