I went on a trip to Kew Gardens in the hope of looking at some mushrooms and/or organic forms like those in the cacti area. I was told that they do have a Fungarium (where they host thousands of species of mushroom) but this was unfortunately not accessible to the public, only to scientists. However in the shop they had this book that was really useful in my study of mushrooms in all their organic forms as inspiration for my work.
Somerset House: Mushrooms, The Art, Design and Future of Fungi.
Understanding what I want my work to achieve in terms of the viewer, the materials and maybe some visual elements such as the work being kinetic or large scale is something that always comes first to me in my process of making. It is always the actual form that I want the materials to create that I struggle with ascertaining. In order for me explore form I want to embark on a journey into the fungi family. Since visiting this unique exhibition at Somerset House, I am beginning to discover the endless shapes, forms and sizes that fungi, spores or mushrooms come in, in fact there are over 120,000 species of fungi in the world. Mushrooms are obviously organic, and they usually have irregular forms - I believe that this may lead me into direction of my next series of sculptures. I don't want to recreate any specific type, I want it to enable me to think organically - perhaps my sculptures could grow out of things and be site specific.
