fragility

Residency at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh:
Preserved in the Herbarium cabinets, dried and mounted on archival boards, specimens await researchers to bring them out. Fungi are particularly challenging to store in the cabinets whether too small or too long or voluminous. In addition, they are a choice cut for beetles–curators’ enemy n˚1. Improvised wrapping and tailored protective strategies tell stories of care evolving over time for these unfitting lifeforms. The series uses actual (discarded) boards, which is the standard format specimens have to comply with to enter the collection, echoing complex Funga’s history with botany. Drawn with charcoal, frail lines and shading depict the fragility and stories enclosed in the cabinets.