‘The Biotopes’ are an ongoing series of sculptural installations that visualise, or act-out, humankind’s entwined-ness with all the other species that we share Planet Earth with. The first two ‘Biotopes’ were temporary interventions in a London park, commissioned by Invisible Dust for the Royal Docks. Both started as 3D scans of the artist’s head. 3D prints were then made using biodegradable cornstarch, whose interiors were adapted to become viable vessels or niches for other species to reside within. For Biotope no.1: Bee-Bole ‘Bermondsey Bees‘ installed a queen and her young swarm of bees who then used the artist’s head as a starter hive for 3 weeks. During the days, the growing swarm foraged for nectar and pollen – emerging through the mouth and nose of the 3D-print. At the end of the exhibition Bermondsey Bees then transferred the growing swarm to their permanent home on another site.
For Biotope no.2: Fungi-Bed the local fungi experts: Fat Fox Mushrooms installed a growing mycelium into the head and shoulders of another 3D-printed sculpture. The mycelium produced its first signs of fruiting on the opening night of show, and a week later fully ‘bloomed’ into large Blue-Oyster mushrooms.
In the summer of 2024 the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh commissioned another iteration of Biotope no.2: Fungi-bed – this time reconfigured to become an indoor gallery based intervention for their exhibition Fungi Forms at Inverleith House, Edinburgh. In this iteration there were three different 3D printed heads in different poses. Each of the heads housed various species of fungi across the 5 months of the exhibition, which, grew, fruited and wilted in cycles – all carefully tended to by the genius of Rhyze Mushrooms.
