Michelle Shengyu Li

Meditations I — my god is dark


Reishi mycelium, wood substrate, raw walnut, water, air, glass

11.5 x 14.5 x 2 in
2023
“But when I lean over the chasm of myself— it seems
my God is dark
and like a web: a hundred roots
silently drinking.
This is the ferment I grow out of. “

– Rainer Maria Rilke, translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows 

Mycelium is an underground root system of mushrooms found everywhere beneath the ground that acts as a network that life in forests use to communicate. Using sound waves to stimulate the growth of the mycelium, I would sing through the quatrefoil holes, hoping that my hums would help it consume the frame I made.

Due to risks of contamination, I coudn’t directly sing to the mycelium until it was inert. Only when it was no longer alive could I touch it.

Performance set in the same building as the lab the mycelium was grown in, on the highest floor.