Description of the Project
“Thanks to Ecoversities Alliance for sponsoring my travel for this Residency, and to brother Nripal for generously hosting me at his beautiful Bambooversity. My first stop was the workshop space in Ramnagar, where the bamboo is processed for construction and furniture-making, and compressed earth bricks are produced. Straight away I was dazzled by the palette of colours, forms and textures of bamboo furniture, fittings and room interiors on the shop floor. I particularly loved the snaky bent bamboo, which was shaped while still growing, and totally unique to anything I have seen before.“
To deepen my learning journey in natural building and experiment with mycoforestry as an artistic practice using bamboo in the construction of sculptural mushroom growing installations.
Description of what really happened
I learned many things from the land itself, the presence of the wild plants and herbs, of the wildlife – kingfishers, ibis, paradise flycatchers, egrets, eagles, vultures, crocodiles, elephants, rhinoceros, leopards, tigers, deer, and bears, and from the local people who live in close connection with the earth, their vernacular architecture built from bamboo and earth, their integrated polyculture home gardens combining trees, vegetables, staple crops, aquaculture and livestock, from the village children and their pure innocent embodiment of joyful curiosity and playfulness, from the village festivals with their cannabis sweets, huge bonfires and allnight drumming, singing and dancing in honour of Lord Shiva, and from Nripal and the workers of the Bambooversity about how to harvest and process bamboo and grow. conducted some promising initial experiements in mycoforestry installations.
What I did: (explain what you or your group did to finish your project.)
I researched and designed the below method for innoculating locally available substrate — sawdust and rice straw — within entirely natural containers, in order to eliminate completely all plastic use within the mushroom production cycle and connect the different organic beings and process on the project within a fully circular economy.
First we gathered hardwood sawdust from the local sawmills in order to use as substarate for growing mushrooms. Then we cut some pioneer species riparian trees growing in the bamboo grove, drilled into them, innoculated the holes with shiitake mushroom spawn, and covered with wax. We cut bamboo into cylinders, filled them with a mix of sawdust and straw, pasturised on a fire, innoculated with oyster mushroom spawn, and plugged them with dried banana stems. We pasturised more straw and filled hemp sacks with a mixture of straw and oyster mushroom spawn. A sheltered space was prepared and all these were arranged together in order to incubate.
After this I researched and designed a mushroom fruiting system based entirely on low-tech natural methods that could replace the typical intensive controlled environments of commercial mushroom farms and at the same time take the form of a sculptural living art installation.
What I enjoyed the most?
The deep immersion in wild earth, the silence, the strength of the local culture and livelihoods so intimitely connected with the earth.
What I found difficult: (write about any part of the project you found hard to do.)
Isolation. I cannot speak Nepali and there was nobody who could speak English for miles around. It was very lonely for me.
What I learned from myself on this project?
I have a talent and a passion for creating 3D art installations in the form of all natural mushroom production systems.
What really worked in this project?
Whenever I allowed myself to open to the unexpected possibilities, learning opportunities, and connections hidden within the space, my experience blossomed.
What is emerging now? How do you imagine the future of your project, whether or not it continues? What new questions, relationships, or possibilities came up?
I definitely want to continue developing with these agriculturally productive mushroom art installations wherever I go!
Who did you collaborate with?
Please share the communities, groups, people, or territories that shaped this process. How did collaboration influence the project?
Nripal and the local team at Abari led by Ram Prasad introduced me to the space, the riparian ecology restoration process, and the bamboo processing. Manisha, her family and their village, which nieghboured the Abari campus, taught me so much, as did the indigenous peoples of Madi valley, and the plants and animals of Chitawan National Park.
How did this project relate to your territory, community, and/or the more-than-human world?
What relationships were strengthened or transformed?
My biggest teachers were the plants, the fungi, the birds, the animals, the waters, the air, the mountains, the sun, the fire. Learning to work with the natrual elemental flows of energy and organic materials were the basis for designing the mushroom production systems that I had rediscovered — systems that were very similar to the ancient traditional forms of mushroom cultivation designed by indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia for generations.
You must be logged in to post a comment.