Oak Kodama Ring

Biota Beings, 2020-

Biota Beings considers long timescales to fathom and forge connections between humans and an ecosystem of entangled elements, leaving a mutualistic legacy after the brief lives of human beings.

Biota Beings explores possibilities of how humans can perceive and act within complex systems on a biome level to face the climate crisis. To do this, the works expand ourselves and build on mutual relationships with other organisms.

Biota Beings follows fascinations found in the natural world to give alternatives to what it is to be human. We created a ‘Becoming’ to explore the potential of the works. This manifesto of sorts features in a blog post found here.

 

Know without knowing

Biota Beings also acknowledges the limits of human perception and understanding of complex natural systems. Our environment is constantly changing and in flux, including because of human activity.

The artworks create a space for the unknown. It also creates ways to ‘Know without knowing’ through stories and folklore.


 


Willow Kodama

 

Dandelion Bladder

Tangles between humans and other beings


Dandelion Bladder

The dandelion interrupts us to see the world anew. No longer a weed, but a clock counting from end times in reverse. The many names of the cankerwort, blowball, swine snout, mark its prevalence found widely, but belie its magnificence. The lion’s tooth is a master of adaptation and survivor of hostile worlds. Like the Hydra, cut it down, and it doubles with a cloning ability. The Bearnan Bride calls to lost spirits. Tea made from its roots lifts the veil to see hidden dimensions of this world and evokes spirits from the memories of the land. The piss-a-bed, puffball, priest’s crown flushes the body and links us back into lands of divination.

 

Field Kodama

Tangles between hidden worlds and their organisms


Kodama Rope

Where once scarecrows stood in the fields, new structures create symbiotic growing systems to prosper many lifeforms. They are called Kodama Ropes. Their forms rise from the ground amongst rich tapestries of plants.

They express deep and diverse views of the future. The Kodama Ropes create habitats and biodiversity inside them. They are made from a blend of soil, wood chip, and organic matter. In their internal darkness they nurture diverse microorganisms and mycorrhizal fungi to thrive. 

The Kodama Ropes may currently stand in landscapes of low biodiversity. However, after inoculation of life, they welcome a diversity of organisms into the human world. 

The forms facilitate and represent dynamic change. On one hand, they create a habitat, and on the other hand, they manifest a cultural shift. The Kodama Ropes form bridges for the imagination to other dimensions and unseen beings.

The structures anchor and embed us into the environment. 

 

 

Moss Exoskeleton


 

An exoskeleton is from a time when artefacts and technology create relationships to prosper and facilitate other life. This helmet nurtures moss, as an environmental engineer, after it is discarded and the human has left the exoskeleton. The moss kick-starts a chain of relationships and the helmet as a site for habitats to flourish. As an artefact, its afterlife leaves space for many other species to live.

 

Shiitake Fungi Storm

Tangles between organisms and meteorological systems


Instruments for Shiitake Mushroom

Seek the mushroom after lightning cracks the heavy skies and storms pound the land. Here you’ll find the visible elements of a hidden fungal being. From the darkness of decay, soil, wood and humus, the shiitake fungus influences the sky to bring forth clouds and electric strikes. The fungi delight in their dance between the below and the above. The fungus may exist out of sight, but they churn the vastness of the atmosphere. They do this through their spores, that seed clouds and other fungal bodies after touching back down to Earth. Here we gift you an instrument to play in your turbulent dance so we can also delight in your dynamic overture and underture which we savour in ears, on lips and in guts.


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We look forward to welcoming you on our creative journey!

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Take home

Landscape Within Biota Beings:
Ocean Forest set

£ 28.00

 

 

 

 


Acknowledgement

Biota Beings by Burton Nitta (Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta)

 

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