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In issue 4 of The Mushroom magazine, I came across an article about bioluminescence called "A Luminous Pursuit" by Joseph Pallante. As I read on, I found myself captivated by this otherworldly process that has long captured the intrigue of many people before us. One passage in particular caught my attention and I thought it could be useful for my project. It discusses how various bioluminescent fungi from around the world have inspired superstitions, folklore, and fairytales as a way for people to explain their mysterious origins. See passage below:
“Observing fungal bioluminescence, also known as foxfire, is a surreal and otherworldly experience. It is no wonder that this fairy light or shining wood has frequently been relegated to the mystical in literature and folklore, inspiring cultural traditions that range from a strong reverence to fear. In European folklore, the puzzling and disorientating willow the wisp lures people deeper and deeper into the woods but is ultimately unreachable. In Thailand, a glowing mushroom in the Khon Kaen province is called the Krasue mushroom, named after a nocturnal female spirit of southeast asian folklore, believed to be a cursed individual reborn as a ghost. At night her luminous head floats, separated from her body, and is drawn to the scent of blood. And some Australian aboriginal/ first nations peoples associate ghost fungus with spirits. The bitter oysterling mushroom was believed by North American settler colonists to be supernatural fairy lights that would lead you to your doom if you followed them.”
This text aligns with many of my interests, including folklore, fairy tales, superstitions, deities, and fantasy creatures. I found it particularly interesting how mushrooms, with their bizarre alien-like qualities, could be incorporated into these themes. I believe this piece could be a great opportunity to explore these subjects further.
I am planning to create my own concept characters based on the curious creatures mentioned in the passage. My first character will be the Thai Krasue, and I will research Thai cultures and customs to make it authentic. I also want to incorporate luminescent paint into my art as a tribute to the text.
Here are some of my favourite examples of bioluminescent mushrooms.
Some particulary unusual mushrooms for inspiration later.
Krasue Mushroom Folklore
Spirit
While researching the Krasue, I found several descriptions of its appearance. It is often depicted as a young, beautiful woman with her internal organs hanging from her neck and trailing below her head. The Krasue is typically depicted as a floating head with a luminescent glow surrounding it. In Thai folklore, it is said to inhabit the same areas as the Krahang, a male spirit.
According to the descriptions I've read, this spirit is able to hover in the air above the ground. The representation of its throat can vary, sometimes only depicting the trachea and other times showing the whole neck. The organs below the head typically include the heart, stomach, and a length of intestine.
The Krasue is said to be cursed, causing it to constantly hunger and be active at night while it hunts for food to satisfy its gluttony. It is known to attack livestock, such as cattle, water buffalo and chickens, drinking their blood and eating their internal organs. If no blood is available, the Krasue may resort to consuming feces or carrion. According to legend, clothes left outside overnight would be found covered in blood and excrement in the morning, as if the Krasue had wiped its mouth on them. As a result, villagers would not leave clothes outside to dry at night to avoid attracting the Krasue.
The Krasue is said to hide the headless body from which it originated in a secluded location, as it must rejoin the body before daybreak. During the day, it is able to live as a normal person, though it may appear tired. It is believed that crushing the Krasue's headless body will kill the spirit. However, if the flying head is unable to return to its proper body, it will suffer torment until its eventual death.
According to legend, if the Krasue's flying head is unable to find its body before sunrise, it will die in great pain. The Krasue can also be killed if its intestines are cut off or if its body is hidden or destroyed. Some believe that burning the Krasue will destroy it. In Thai folklore, angry mobs of villagers armed with torches and machetes are often depicted as the Krasue's main foes. They may attempt to catch and kill the Krasue, or follow it to its hiding place and destroy its body before dawn.
They say, people who are wounded should be wary of the Krasue, as it is said to be able to smell blood and will come to feed on it at night while its victims are asleep. However, there are ways to protect oneself from the Krasue. Some people build spiky fences or grow spiky bamboo around their homes to deter the Krasue, as it is afraid of getting its intestines stuck on spiky objects and being unable to escape.
Thai Spirituality
Thai Mural Art
Some of my favourite examples of Thai mural art.
Will o the wisp
The Will o' the Wisp is a mischievous and impish spirit that enjoys playing tricks on unsuspecting travellers. It can be found in the moors and bogs of England, where it may appear as simple orbs of glowing light that lure and tantalise the weary traveller. Fluttering Emperor Moths, entranced by the orb's glow, dance around it to a hypnotically beautiful birdsong. The orbs create a mirage effect and lure people into an underworld deep in the bogs. None who enter the bogs return but local people have claimed that waiting within is the full spirit of Will o' the Wisp - a being with the body of a deer, a human face, leaves instead of fur, and mistletoe with glowing berries growing from its antlers. It is believed that the orbs bring the traveller to the spirit, and if they are entranced enough to kiss it, they are transformed into a mushroom. However, if they resist, they receive the kiss of death.
To see the Will o' the Wisp, you must go to the gloomiest corner of the bogs, far from the reach of others. Your chances of success are higher on nights of the full moon, when the border between our world and their world is at its thinnest.
Folklore:
A Will-o’-the-wisp is a phantom light that hovers in the wilderness, luring travellers away from the beaten path. Most of these lights haunt the moors and bogs of England, but they have been reported all over the world, under various names.
The classic Will-o’-the-wisp is carried by a blacksmith named Will. Will was such a troublemaker that, when he died and went to heave.n, he was sent back by Saint Peter, who told him to reform during his second life. Unfortunately, Will’s second life was even more monstrous than his first, so Saint Peter cursed him to roam the earth forever. The devil, impressed by Will’s evildoing, gave him a coal to warm himself on the cold earth nights. Instead, Will decided to use the coal to make a torch and lure innocent travellers into danger.
Aside from their ability to dazzle and tantalise travellers, Will-o’-the-wisps are also powerful omens. They appear to be able to predict the future, appearing to people before their deaths or flocking to the sight of a tragedy before it takes place. They might also reveal the place where a thief or a fairy has buried golden treasure.
A light floating in the darkness might seem innocent, even friendly, but don’t be deceived. These attractive lights are almost always malevolent. They lead travelers onto dangerous land, perhaps a deep hole in a bog or a kingdom ruled by vicious fairies.
The backstory of Will-o’-the-wisps can shed some light on their cruel nature. The lights are carried by spirits who are shut out of both heaven and hell.
Appearance:
Will-o’-the-wisps are very simple apparitions. They appear as balls of light, sometimes so bright that they hurt your eyes and other times so dim that you have to squint to see them. They usually have a blue-ish gleam to them, although red has also been reported.
In some rare sightings, a dark figure has been seen carrying the light, as if it was a torch or a lantern. Despite carrying a light, the figure is always too dark to be described in detail.
Personality:
Tricksy, impish, irritable, mischievous
Location:
Moors and bogs, mostly in England but sightings have been recorded all over Europe.
Likes:
To lure travellers to their demise.
Chinga - Ghost fungus
The Chinga is a highly elusive spirit that is found in the most remote corners of Australia and Tasmania. Only a few local tribesmen have seen it, and they tend to caution and mistrust them, associating them with evil magic. It is rumoured that the Chinga descended to earth as falling stars and are now trapped, wandering the earth and emitting the remnants of their glow. They still have burning cores that smoulder constantly, and can be located by looking for their glow and small scorch marks on the ground. The smell of smoke is also a clue to their whereabouts. Due to the intensity of their heat, insects are repelled by them. Some people who have spotted them describe them as echidnas with mushroom-like spines.
In truth Chinga spirits are generally peaceful and passive, spending most of their time in a melancholic state of nostalgia for their days as bright burning stars. They only become aggressive when their wanderings are interrupted.
Folklore:
Much knowledge has been lost due to colonialism, however there are a few rare accounts of these strange beings.
Reports explain that these creatures fell from the skies as falling stars. They are now trapped wandering the earth still emitting the remainder of their glow. Local tribesmen associate them with evil magic and are untrusting of them. They name them the Chinga and have a great fear for them.
These small faeries still retain their burning cores and continue to smoulder all day and night. To find them keep your eyes peeled for their glow and small scotch marks on the earth. A smell of smoke is also a telltale sign of their whereabouts. Because of the intensity of heat insects are repelled by them. They are described as shape shifters, their true form is unknown.
Personality:
Melancholic, it lives for the nostalgia for when it burned bright as a star.
Location:
Australia and tasmania
Likes:
Astrology, riddles
Artists to note
In my article about bioluminescent mushrooms, I want to incorporate a glowing effect into my art piece. I have been researching artists who have used this technique in their work to learn different ways to achieve this effect. There are three main aspects of my topic that I want to focus on: mushrooms, light, and Thai spirituality.
Light
Hunter Cole
Hunter Cole creates Living Drawings with bioluminescent bacteria. These Living Drawings depict the cycle of life and death calling attention to our own mortality. She creates controlled line drawings using bioluminescent bacteria. The bacteria then grows on Petri dishes. Bacteria become collaborators in the art as it grows and dies. First appearing with bright light, bacteria in the drawing are photographed as it uses up available nutrients, gradually dying-off over a two-week period. She created a movie of bacterial drawings growing and dying with music based on protein sequence in the bacteria. Hunter Cole is also creating a new series called Living Light where people and objects are photographed by the light of bioluminescent bacteria. Her most recent series is called Bioluminescent Weddings where people are posed for wedding photographs by the light of bioluminescent bacteria. One of the functions of bioluminescence in nature is to attract a mate.
I doubt ill be able to get my hands on the beautifully glowing bacteria she uses but the article is definitely inspiring.
Shih Chieh Huang
Huang creates large scale installations inspired by deep sea bioluminescent creatures. He wanted to invoke feelings of looking at their peculiar anatomy under a microscope. His creations, designed to appear as if they were “floating” in the darkness of the museum gallery. While the constructions are not biological models or reconstructions of the specimens he studied, they represent the creativity and imagination that was sparked by his investigation.
I think his pieces are successful in his aim. They do invoke feelings of the deep ocean and their unusual movements make them feel alive. They appear fragile and ethereal much like the unusual life forms found in the twilight zone.
Anthony McCall
Mccall creates art installations using light displays. The majority of his work is monochromatic. His work appears ghostly and extraterrestrial. His prints display wisps of light appearing like smoke which I found very inspiring. It could be quite interesting to create something like this to create an impressions of ghostly spores.
Mushrooms
I have also been looking at artists who create art on the topic of mushrooms. Here are some botanical illustrators and their work.
Ernst Haekel
Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, a German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, and physician.
Made during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his brilliantly colourful and highly stylized drawings, watercolours, and sketches reveal how different forms of plant life appear under the microscope. Although each hand-drawn organism looks like something from a science fiction book, Haeckel’s body of work sheds light on the incredible hidden intricacies of real, natural forms that inhabit the Earth.
One of my favorite artists is Haekel, whose work is beautifully elaborate and detailed. It has a surreal, alien-like quality, yet is purely nature and science-based. I hope to incorporate a similar sense of elevated reality and precision into my own art.
Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is one of the world's best-loved children's authors and illustrators. She wrote the majority of the twenty-three Original Peter Rabbit Books between 1901 and 1913. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Frederick Warne, 1902) is her most famous and best-loved tale.
Beatrix Potter was deeply interested in natural history and as a young woman became especially concerned with mycology. She made hundreds of mycological drawings, many of which she bequeathed to the Armitt Museum and Library in Ambleside, the Lake District, after her death.
Beatrix Potter not only made careful drawings of fungi, but actively studied it. Her scientific paper, On the Germination of the Spores of the Agaricineae was read at the Linnean Society in London, but was never published.
Her works are beautifully illustrated botanical studies of mushrooms and fungus. Perhaps a lesser known side of Potter, she was incredibly talented as both a scientist and an artist.
Jacek yerka
Yerka’s artwork is beautifully surreal and otherworldly. Many of his works include mushrooms and I thought them relevant for my own practice.
Jacek Yerka is a polish artist who used his creative abilities to escape the real world. He was heavily influenced by Bosch and imagines worlds of his own where Snail houses live amongst mushroom valleys and nature and technology collide to create fantasy creatures.
Leah Palmer Preiss
Preiss creates nature inspired art with a big twist of surrealism. Her creatures often appear knotlike and ethereal. She collects the strange and unusual, filling her house with oddments and then creating illustrations from them. This method of stitching odd things together to create art is quite similar to how I work. I like how she integrates text with images and this could be something that I bring into my own work.
Thai spirituality
The mushrooms I am studying originate in the Khon Kaen province of Thailand, so I believe it's important for my artwork to reflect this. Doing so will add authenticity to the piece and show respect for Thai culture and beliefs. To achieve this, I plan to research Thai artists, both modern and traditional, for inspiration.
Lee Man Fong
Chinese painter Lee Man Fong trained in China and in Western Europe, and lived much of his life in Indonesia, developing a particular style that blends together a variety of sources for his quiet yet passionate vision. He often turned to Chinese brushwork and technique in painting his scenes that relied on Western visual conventions. A leading painter and curator, his pioneering vision established the Nanyang style in the 20th century in Indonesia.
Lee Man Fong was a Chinese artist who spent a significant amount of time living and painting in Indonesia. While he was not Thai, his work captures many of the atmosphere and characteristics of Thailand. His paintings portray the sense of tropical heat and the busy lives of people in Southeast Asia, which remain prevalent today.
Pichai
In the streets of Bangkok, an unknown artist has been leaving a trail of mysterious diagrams and markings. Documentary filmmaker Rafael sets out to uncover the meaning behind these marks and to identify the person responsible for creating them. Over the course of five days, Rafael asks strangers for clues and follows the trail of markings. Eventually, he discovers that the artist is a homeless man named Pichai, who has been documenting his life through these marks. Pichai believes that his creations will help him uncover the fate of his missing family. Typical of all art brut creators he making artwork without even intending to do so.
I found this documentary to be very intriguing, as it reveals a lot about human psychology. Pichai is convinced of his truth, and to him, it is undeniable. However, we all have our own subjective experiences of the world, and what Pichai sees is no less real to him than what anyone else sees. This highlights the egocentric nature of our perceptions.
Documentary below.
Kamolpan Chotvichai
Kamolpan Chotvichai addresses issues of identity and gender in photo-based self-portraits. Challenging the formal limitations of paper and canvas, she meticulously hand-cuts images of her body, creating sinuous ribbons along various parts of her anatomy. Based on an understanding of Buddhist teachings, Chotvichai obliterates her identity, eliminating her face and literally strips away her physical form, in the process relinquishing attachment to her body.
In contrast to the often socially and politically charged contemporary art from Thailand, Kamolpan’s emotionally wrought black-and-white images are free of cultural iconography or social commentary. Her work is informed by her cultural heritage, not defined by it. Although her practice incorporates elements of Buddhist philosophy, her succinct visual language is entirely modern. She executes these dimensional works with an almost scientific precision and unparalleled technical mastery.
The work of Chotvichai is very inspiring. The strong female imagery obscured by paper ribbons gives a mysterious feel to her art. The Krasue spirit is a female ghost with no body, so incorporating shredded paper to obscure the body in my own work could create an interesting effect.
Funghi Facts
When people think of fungi, they often imagine strange, fleshy growths that grow from decaying plants and animals. While fungi can be poisonous and associated with death and decay, they also have the ability to bring new life and have numerous health benefits. In fact, without fungi, dead matter would build up and bury everything in its path, so it is actually quite useful that they exist.
The mushroom is just the tip of the iceberg, the visible growth above ground is the reproductive organs of the fungus. It is actually part of a huge underground network known as a mycelial web. The web-like network created by fungi also allows trees to send nutrients to each other. This helps to support the health and vitality of the entire forest ecosystem.
In addition to exchanging nutrients, trees can also communicate with each other through electrical impulses, similar to how neurons function in the human brain. This means that every forest is alive and constantly communicating with its inhabitants. If you go into the woods and lift a portion of the earth floor you will be able to see millions of tiny interlinking threads of mycelium.
To recreate mushrooms release spores, which are invisible starting points for new fungi. These spores can populate our atmosphere and have even been found to survive in space.
Despite the vast number of species, there is still much that we do not know about the kingdom of fungi. It is estimated that there are between 2.2 million and 3.8 million species of fungi. Many of these are edible and have numerous health benefits. For example, studies have shown that Psilocybin, a hallucinogenic mushroom, can be effective in treating mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
While most people are aware of Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin, few understand the reasons behind the mold's behavior. Fungi are constantly in a battle with other organisms, such as bacteria and viruses, for space. It is this ability to kill bacteria that led to the discovery of penicillin as a treatment for patients.
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