WORDS AND ART Hobbs and Borton
Artists Hobbs and Borton’s artistic process. Inspired by nature’s abundance, they use lichens, mushrooms, and other natural materials in their artwork. Photo: Pauline Borton
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About the Artwork
Maybe, we need to stop trying to make abundance.
Let us ponder the symbiosis of tiny decomposers and the balance in nature, which sometimes looks like annihilation — a veld fire, a decaying tree. That’s only deceptive death: there’s life under the surface, a decarbonizing, bustling world of natural abundance, a web of life connected by fungi, mosses, lichens, insects, bacteria, and millions of other microorganisms.
Maybe, we need to reconnect with, respect, and revere the existing natural balance, something we so desperately seek as the world gets warmer and systems we know collapse.
Could it be that in this reconnection, in this reverence, we find some peace? Can we look past our fear and into an uncertain future with more hope than before, together with nature? In many ways, abundance is about equilibrium, and nature shows us how to achieve that every day. We need a sense of awe and a deep respect for nature’s power.
We need to stop trying to make abundance.
As humans, we only acknowledge what we can see, assimilate, and interpret. Nature’s vast ability to heal itself, morph, and transform is beyond our human imagination. But as artists, we try to create multimedia myths that share a story and show an engagement with it. We tap into the human-made knowledge networks within South African National Collection of Fungi (PREM), connecting the artwork to forays, hikes, and walks in the Magaliesberg and Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens. The intention of both the art and the forays is to show that our fear of never having enough or trying to control life on our terms is a self-delusion: we have so much already. Now we need to connect the dots between the knowledge, archive, history, past, present, and future, and work at being completely present. Let us make new stories for the now. Let us be inspired by our natural heritage, hold it safe, and protect it. Let us collaborate and celebrate the symbiosis of nature’s work.
Maybe, we need to acknowledge the symbiosis of small things, which are road maps showing that nurturing healthy symbiotic relationships is naturally generative — abundance follows.
We are inspired by the natural heritage that surrounds us: a lineage of lichens, mosses, mushrooms, and fungi — our ancestors. Our entire food system relies on microorganisms, unseen biodiversity connected across swathes of soil, knitted together by mycelium, mosses, and symbiosis. Our soil food web is the beating heart of food production and more. We need to embrace our soil and nurture it to grow better food, be better humans, and sustain ourselves for longer. We learn that the little things, the detritivores, slime, and molds that often make us exclaim, “Gross!” are vital parts of our ecosystem. Just as important as the slimy, moldy, fungal decomposers in our soil food web are the millipedes, centipedes, woodlice, earthworms, slugs, and snails. These small yet powerful creatures are responsible for cycling decaying matter back into our earth, transforming it into nutrient-rich soil in which the trees that help us breathe, plants for pollinators, root systems that knit the earth together, and food for our bellies can grow.
Nurturing healthy symbiotic relationships is naturally generative — abundance follows.
As we imagine tiny decomposers at work in our back gardens, along pavements, in forests, in community gardens and parks, it can feel a bit surreal, a bit like science fiction at work, and slightly confusing as we come to terms with how vital something almost invisible can be.
Nature is abundance, and we are nature.
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Our artwork consists of mixed media (clay, linocuts, paper and cardboard, images of mushrooms and fungi from research trips, acrylic paint, ink, shiitake mushrooms, lichens).
Most materials are found objects; the clay is gifted by a nearby local studio; paper and cardboard are recycled; linocuts are reused; other items can be composted and returned to the earth.
These materials are compiled into a physical collage, which is photographed and then digitally rendered into the final artwork pieces in carefully considered digital collages.
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The Symbiosis of Tiny Decomposers Multimedia Myths
“Connecting Beyond the Frame”
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“Discovering the Archives”
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“Discovering the Archives”
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“Diversity in the Split Gill and Ink Cap Family”
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“Abundance and Divine Decay”
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“Imprints from the Mycelial Network”
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“Conversations and Collaborations”
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“Finding Invisible in the Clay”
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“Recipe for Richness”
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Support the Cause: Take a walk in the woods and meet the mushrooms, mosses, and lichens, or put your nose in the soil and meet the slugs, snails, and earthworms. Have conversations with our natural collaborators and guardians. Connect with the ground beneath your feet and the clouds above your head. Extend your own self into the natural realm of abundance and feel safe in an uncertain world — you are part of nature, after all. Share your story with us! Let’s connect. Find us at hobbsbortonmixedmedia.studio
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Pauline Borton has a background in connecting people and spaces. Her recent artwork focuses on fungi and mycelial networks and how these become metaphors for social, and often hidden, connections between people and all living things. Find her also at paulineborton.com
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Mike Hobbs loves to watch an image grow, morph, and transform at his fingertips and feels empowered by the process of digital image-making, as the possibilities are literally endless. He is steeped in the literature that chronicles the journey from modern to contemporary artmaking.
