FRUITFUL BODIES
For COED COEXIST
Oriel Plas Glyn y Weddw.
16 May – 12 July 2026
The small branch of the fallen Beech that I was given by John Egan from the Plas woodland was patterned with colonies of Graphis Scripta lichen. The fruiting bodies of these organisms appear as ‘scripts’ or hieroglyphics, the patterns are expressions and always different, and they occupy a living world that is bounded by a transitional boundary, called the pro-thallus. Within this boundary live ‘communities of difference’; a number of organisms, including fungi, algae and cyanobateria, all collaborating to adapt, flourish and survive.
I’m interested in how we might experience ourselves (as humans) to be symbionts. This piece, Fruitful Bodies, uses different combinations of colourful elastic bands to softly bind our moving bodies, offering the playful means to move collaboratively as duo or trio…
And maybe, as molecular biologist Scott. F.Gilbert (2012) proposed in his research on symbiosis, we find that ‘We are all lichens’?
Fruitful Bodies is a wearable score which conjoins 2 or more human bodies together in an elastic symbiosis. Encouraging you to navigate the exhibition together, both indoors and out, these large elastic bands engender a playful give and take. Inspired by the symbiotic worlds of lichen bodies, you are invited to move together whilst lightly attached.
Mae Cyrff Ffrwythlon yn sgôr gwisgadwy sy’n uno dau gorff dynol mewn symbiosis elastig. Gan annog pobl i lywio a thrafod yr arddangosfa gyda’i gilydd, dan do ac yn yr awyr agored, mae’r bandiau’n meithrin undod, yn rhoi ac yn cymryd. Wedi’u hysbrydoli gan fywiogrwydd symbiotig hynafol cyrff cen, gwahoddir y cyhoedd i brofi symudiadau cydweithredol, ymdeimlad estynedig ohonynt eu hunain, yn chwareus fel cen.
Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, COED COEXIST 2026