Our friend Debra Solomon opened her show “En necromass: an optimistic, fungal perspective on death and production”

Debra’s practice has involved exploring the role of fungi as transformers of organic materials and as soil builders. Her residency placed particular emphasis on the soil rhizosphere; where plant roots, microbiota and soil fungi interact. During her residency she closely observed soil building in the diverse living locations of the gardens and woods at Schumacher and within the Dartington Estate. She was also able to engage with horticultural experts, including the Head Gardener at Schumacher (Jane Gleason), the Head Gardener at Dartington (Ian Gilbert) and the Forest Garden expert Martin Crawford, in a conversation about the value of soil compared to mainstream agricultural practice.

From this experience she developed a series of screen-prints, presented here, about soil from the perspective of fungi called En necromass: an optimistic, fungal perspective on death and production. The works reference the vast communication and exchange that takes place in around the root zone. Here there is the most life and nutrient production as well as the death and decay of organic matter, as nutritious necromass transforms into soil. The rootball of a recently storm-felled tree, mycelium feeding on a dead leaf, a leaf’s skeleton, and spore prints that appear as ghosts, tell a myco-centric story of materials becoming soil.  The silkscreen prints were produced with the well-known Amsterdam printmaker, Kees Maas.