Project Statement
The Mushroom Temple is a portable and modular structure that engages viewers or “Travelers” with a multi-sensory (haptic, visual, hearing, and taste) experience. This sensorial adventure will facilitate an entertaining and educational understanding surrounding lost or minimally accessed sacred fungal knowledge that was once vital to our species’ survival and coexistence ( Mycognosis ). This lost knowledge will focus on Amanita Muscaria, a significant psychoactive fungus with which we, as humans, have had prolonged global contact in every continent since we were nomadic tribes (Aixalà, 2018). The artwork aims to correct the rampant misrepresentation of Amanita Muscaria, commonly known as “Fly Agaric’, or even more widely imprisoned by the title “Mario Mushroom.” It aims to illustrate how we have been significantly impacted by its presence and use worldwide throughout history. This weatherproof portable structure allows me to bring this fungal art and education to virtually any environment. Among the countless things that can be facilitated within this structure. The temple will house the story of an ethnomycological focus on Scandinavian history and mythology. Through art, design, and an immersive experience, the viewer will absorb this fascinating lost critical relationship we once shared with Amanita muscaria, the fungal kingdom, and nature itself.
Artist Statement
I am creating a portable and modular structure that will engage viewers or “Travelers” with a multi-sensory (haptic, visual, hearing, and taste) experience. This sensorial adventure will facilitate an entertaining and educational understanding surrounding lost or minimally accessed sacred fungal knowledge that was once vital to our species’ survival and coexistence ( Mycognosis ). This lost knowledge will focus on Amanita Muscaria, a significant psychoactive fungus with which we, as humans, have had prolonged global contact with in every continent since we were nomadic tribes. ( Aixalà, 2018 ) The primary goal will be to tell a story that dispels the rampant misrepresentation of Amanita Muscaria, commonly known as “Fly Agaric’, or even more widely imprisoned by the title “Mario Mushroom,” and illustrate how we have been significantly impacted by its presence and use worldwide throughout history. This weatherproof portable structure allows me to bring this fungal art and education to virtually any environment. Among the countless things that can be facilitated within this structure, for the thesis’s purpose, it will house the story of an ethnomycological1 focus on Scandinavian and Irish history and mythology. Through art, design, and an immersive experience, I can maximize how much information is absorbed about this fascinating lost critical relationship we once shared with Amanita muscaria, the fungal kingdom, and nature itself.
1 The historical uses of fungi & the sociological impacts they have had on our species.
About Sean Redwood
Hailing from the land of the water riders ( Venice, California ), Sean grew up in a semi-nomadic life of poverty along the entirety of the West Coast. His final destination in his teens would be the mysterious and beautiful tree cities of the Pacific Northwest. Upon coming of age, Sean eagerly joined the warrior clans of the great Merica tribe ( United States Army ) to prove his worth, see the world, escape his environment, and pay for college. During Sean's youth, he had always been fascinated with marking things with colored grease and sharp sticks of burnt wood ( painting & drawing ), it always helped him gain distance from a dangerous environment and helped him process the things he couldn't understand at the time. During his travels as a young warrior, Sean discovered that these same healing and entrancing marks with which he was obsessed could be etched into the skin of his fellow warriors ( tattoos ) and worn into combat and for some, life afterward.
As time went on, Sean became dissatisfied with just marking his comrades with images. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t stop envisioning worlds and peoples which had never been seen before. After four in a half years of tribal warfare ( war/conflict ), multiple deployments to Afghanistan, and many travels to far and exotic lands as an elite tracker ( Reconnaissance Sniper/ Squad Leader ), Sean yearned to return to the stillness of the silent trees that guarded his secluded forest home. It was finally time for him to rest his hurting body and mind. During the long journey home, Sean encountered many dangers, and obstacles, and unfortunately experienced many losses. He knew he could no longer survive the harsh cold nights alone. So Sean ventured into the wilderness ( life ) and was drawn to a pack of other injured beasts ( injured/wild dogs in need and his Anam Cara ) that hurt and loved as he did.
Together through their shared pain and experiences they slowly but surely rehabilitated each other into an unbreakable and unstoppable team. The family he had always dreamed of but never had the opportunity to have, was now his, and his newly healed heart and mind sang. Forged anew, Sean, his beloved, and thriving pack formed a base of operations on the outskirts of the largest forest city, Portland OR. Sean went on to earn his BFA in Illustration and is currently working on completing his MFA in Applied Craft and Design with a focus on visual storytelling and mycological education. Sean now spends his time creating visual works depicting fascinating worlds and the beings and creatures that inhabit them as a full time Illustrator and Craftsman, learning new ways to teach people about mushrooms, rehabilitating more furry creatures in need, and going on expeditions into the wilderness to discover and study fungi and embrace the beauty and gift that is life and nature in the PNW, with his ever-growing beast pack ( love & passion ).
MFA in Applied Craft + Design
