Fungibilus

C.E.R.E.S. RMIT on site collaborative project 2008 Cameron Robbins and Ceri Hann

The orange colour of the safety mesh (bunting) I have become preoccupied with reminded me of the orange fungi encountered in bush excursions. There are not many fungi lately due to drought conditions. I decided to replicate this biological organism using the orange safety bunting.
In nature fungi recycles and composts dead organic material. While researching a visual reference of orange fungi I serendipitously came across the following economic term.
Fungibility – means in place of…or replaceable for…duality; convertability; permutability; transposability; freely exchangeable; commutability
i.e.) fungible people are easily replaced when downsizing an organization
I selected a site where people would walk through, in keeping with my earlier thoughts on creating a threshold। One tree was alive, the other was dead from fire. It would be appropriate to have installed Fungibilus on dead trees as fungi only live on dead material.
In keeping with the environmental sustainability ethos of the site I used as much recycled material as possible to construct the hand made pieces. I mounted the work using a soft black garden tie to reduce the possibility of damaging the living tree. A grey material would have blended better colourwise, however the black material disappeared well on the burnt tree. I think the pieces would have another dimension illuminated at night.
In was interesting in terms of practice to notice how working on site affected how my work developed. I had to make adjustments and edit ideas quickly to complete the work within the given timeframe. A group of white fungi made from white bird mesh was dropped.
The orange bunting worked well as the fungi I was replicating are naturally that colour. The orange works well in both a natural and urban environment. In addition the inherent notion of safety associated with the material suggests our cultural uncertainty around whether fungi are toxic or safe to eat. Also safety was strongly reinforced in discussions with CERES on risk management and public liability. I am keen to develop further work investigating safety materials that occur in public space.