MYCELIUM (2021 - 2023)

Mycelium forms the shared universe of father and son. While Alzheimers’ disease distorts thinking and speech, visual language takes over from words. During joint forest walks, I try to bridge the increasing distance from my father through photography.

A shared world of wonder grows in the forest. In addition to an attempt to bridge to his world through metaphorical imagery and an imagination of my father’s gaze, I ask my father to paint over several photographs. It opens the door to his mind, where existing forms take on a different meaning and colors come to life. Over a two year time span, the correspondence captures a chronological process documenting the progressing disease, for the prints are increasingly edited, to the extend that photographs are left unrecognisable or invisible, and figuration disappears. The interaction between the photographic works and painted-over prints is the physical result of our own Mycelium. The forest becomes a world of connection, a separate universe in which speech and ratio become inferior to visual language and fascination, allowing me to get closer to my father in an increasingly divergent relationship.

‘As my father can no longer cross the bridge into my world, I have to go over to his’ - Arno Geiger

On June 22nd, 2023, the eponymous publication came out.

Specifications

Ed. of 300

26,5 x 20 cm

80 pages

Text: Belle de Rode

Translation: Barber van der Laan

Graphic Design: Jord Noorbeek

Available at local bookstores or via e-mail