In 'THE MAD GARDENER', Susanne Fagerlund explores animals, plants, and digital hybrid species. During the spring of 2023, she collaborated with the Hasselblad Foundation and Gothenburg's Natural History Museum on a project that included inventorying their digital image archive of living, threatened and extinct species. The exhibition at Gallery 54/GIBCA EXTENDED is a development of that work. It consists of installations of photographs, digital sculptures, videos, and tentacular mutations.
The title is borrowed from Donna J Haraway's theories about tentacular thinking and how all living things are interconnected in an ecosystem.* She describes our existence as deeply intertwined with other species and that we must abandon our hierarchical thinking to find a better future. Haraway ends her text with the encouragement, "…chipping and shredding and layering like a mad gardener, make a much hotter compost pile for still possible pasts, presents, and futures."
The project focuses on the tentacular, inspired by mycelium and mycorrhiza, that connect species to share ecosystem resources. Or like the multi-headed fungus that is neither an animal, a plant, nor a fungus but a single-celled organism with the ability to form effective networks for cooperation and transfer of information.
Like a mad gardener, Fagerlund has treated her own and the Gothenburg Museum of Natural History's image archives as a compost pile of past, present, and future. Through a kaleidoscope of algorithms and digital tools, she has "chipped, shredded and layered" the archives. New digital species emerged as the images were sequenced, fused, and mutated. A speculative ecosystem – where past and future coexist as tentacular hybrid species beyond traditional oppositions and hierarchies.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Susanne Fagerlund is a visual artist based in Gothenburg. In 2021, she took her MFA in Fine Art at HDK-Valand, and in 2023, she completed a post-master course at the Royal Institute of Art. Her artistic practice explores the relationship and interdependence between humans and nature – often filtered through technology. Her installations oscillate between digital technologies, video, sound, sculptures, and photography.
*https://www.e-flux.com/journal/75/67125/tentacular-thinking-anthropocene-capitalocene-chthulucene/
