The Exhibition Case: Amanda Selinder
On Saturday April 30, Flat Octopus presents a new exhibition in The Exhibition Case at Färgfabriken with artist Amanda Selinder curated by Paulina Granat.
Amanda Selinder’s Myceliated (2022) is a site specific installation which visualises the usually invisible endophytic fungi through an artistic work based in scientific method. In the piece, Selinder invites us to take part in the life cycle of pigment producing organisms living within the tissue of trees and asks us to open up our senses to the existence and processes of unseen life forms.
The exhibition is presented in connection to Färgfabriken’s opening of the Åke Pallarp retrospective Upprymd Saturday 30 April 11.00–21.00. The artist as well as Paulina Granat curator/Flat Octopus will be present 15.00–19.00.
The exhibition is on display 30 April–19 June.
The Exhibition Case is an ongoing collaboration between Färgfabriken and Flat Octopus. The concept was created during Flat Octopus stay in Open Studio at Färgfabriken fall 2021.
About the artist
Amanda Selinder (b. 1990, Tranås) is a bioart and textile artist based in Uppsala, Sweden. In her practice, Amanda works with living processes through a variety of ways. Slime mould, bio film, fungal mycelium and dye plants are a few of the organisms she explores. Central to her practice is the recurring investigation of these organisms and their ability to produce and absorb pigment.
Amanda holds a BFA from HDK in Gothenburg and School of Visual Arts in New York (2016). Since then she has exhibited both in Sweden and internationally, such as at Uppsala Konstmuseum, Österängens konsthall in Jönköping, Soft Galleri in Oslo, Moscow International Biennale for Young Arts, The Cluster Gallery in New York, Gallery KC Väst in Gothenburg and Largo das Artes in Rio de Janeiro. In 2021 she received the Uppsala culture stipend and in 2020 a one year working grant from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
The artistic process
Fungi are almost everywhere around us. Some we can see with the naked eye, while some live underground or as invisible spores whirling in the wind. Endophytic fungi live within the tissue of trees and some of them produce pigment as part of their defense against UV light. Hidden, they produce pigment ranging from black, green and red. By visualising the pigments produced by these fungi I want to show the vast biological diversity around us – a diversity we cannot see and that we don’t even realise exists.
In order to produce the pigment I grow fungi from various kinds of plants on several small sample pieces of nutrient agar, specifically meant for growing fungi. After a few days, the life inside starts to spread. The samples which produce pigment are isolated in order to be used for dyeing. Pieces of silk fabric are placed in the nutrient agar while the fungal mycelium grows and overtakes the surface, releasing pigment and dyeing the silk in abstract patterns. Depending on the species of fungus, the pigmentation can change due to the fungi’s age, if it encounters another species or if the environment is altered. The pattern infused into the silk fabric becomes a story about the fungi’s life cycle.