eNewMexican

Mixed Media

Entangled Futurities: metaspores for queer trans/genic symbionts

— Michael Abatemarco

In biology, spores from plants, algae, fungi, and protozoa are units of sexual and asexual reproduction, typically dispersed to ensure a given species survival, even in unfavorable environmental conditions. Form & Concept’s (435 S. Guadalupe St., 505-780-8312, formandconcept.center) current two-person show, Entangled Futurities: metaspores for queer trans/ genic symbionts, takes the concept of spore dispersal and translates it in a quasi-fictional narrative where the existence of speculative transdimensional and transtemporal lifeforms are intimately intertwined with human destiny.

Ostensibly, the exhibition, which is on view through July 31, consists of two bodies of work: never-before-seen drawings by Black mixed-race, and genderqueer artist Tigre (Bailando) Mashaal-Lively and ceramic sculpture by ceramist, social movement researcher, and speculative fiction writer Pascal Emmer. But these two bodies of work are conceptually linked by the futurisms theme that predominates in the artists’ respective practices and by the mutual inspiration they draw from the writings of David Abram (Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology), Octavia Butler (Wildseed), Merlin Sheldrake (Entangled Life), and other authors.

“Even though their aesthetics are different, their conceptual universes have so much overlap,” says Form & Concept Director Jordan Eddy. “They’re kind of entangled, really.”

The term “futurisms” generally refers to perspectives on the past, present, and future of a subset of human society; one presented in the context of science fiction.

In Entangled Futurities, the artists use the mycelium of fungi, or the network of vegetal fibers that can form colonies that span as much as thousands of acres, as a metaphor for human connections, patterns of behavior, and histories, specifically in the context of LGBTQIA and BIPOC communities. The mycelium is, in essence, a superorganism.

“In the early conversations they were having, they really found this powerful connection between their work,” Eddy says. “In fact, they’d both been reading up on the properties of mycelium and these symbiotic relationships between fungi and other plant life independently. Their ideas around futurisms kind of sprouted from thinking about these quasi-magical properties of fungi.”

To say the work is centered around a quasi-fictional narrative is also to say it’s centered on a narrative that’s partly real. Entangled Futurities is about the potential futures that could spring from this present moment.

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https://enewmexican.com/article/281573768650522

Santa Fe New Mexican