On Under-Growth and Form

Emma Carter Millet

I developed the “Under-Growth” project around the notions of the soil and more particularly of mycorrhizae and fungi. The mushroom is a fascinating kingdom of life. Still mostly unknown, at this moment in time there are 100,000 listed species.

The best known of the fungi are the basidiomycetes because they have a “flowering” period, i.e. all the fungi that we can see on the surface are only reproductive parts and most of the fungi remain underground as mycorrhizae or mycelia. Fungi withhold a reign of mystery and potential, however, they also inspire fear and mistrust.

Emma Carter Millet and Thomas Clerc, ‘Mold’, Photo-microscopy,
digital photo, 2019.

Inspired by the work of Tue Greenfort and Thomas Clerc’s passion for mushrooms, I made forty mushrooms in clay inspired by the shape of the Fistuline Hepatique mushroom, that erupts on tree trunks. My fungal structures all vary slightly in shape and size and are approximately 9 x 7 cm.

Tue Greenfort, EQUILIBRIUM, Styropor, artificial mushrooms,
2016, 95 x 47 x 24 cm

These “Under-Growths” are displayed in the streets of Paris and protrude from the city’s surfaces. By making an incongruous organism appear in the urban environment, this fungal bloom aims to give visibility to the fungus but above all to try to reveal and sublimate it in the eyes of the world.

Emma Carter Millet, “Under-Growth”, (clay), 2020.

Following the recent events linked to the health crisis which subsequently led to the closure of “non-essential” places such as those of culture. We are faced with a world deprived of sharing and artistic creation. The dispersion of my mushroom structures in the streets, which remain the only places where one can still express oneself more or less freely, are a form of artistic resistance to this period of restrictions. Moreover, the global pandemic may mark the end of excessive growth.

“Under-Growth” brings us back down to earth, to the essentials such as the soil, the earth and the ecosystems on which we depend.