Before creating these botanical lungs, I'd made a more rudimentary set of macrame lungs that provided a useful blueprint. Their palette was inspired by blue and white porcelain, and I was interested to see how its effect was to destabilize a separation between terran and aquatic life. I quite love that ambiguity because it creates a familiar yet still otherworldly surface.
This piece was made during the rise of COVID's initial outbreak, and that event provided quite a backdrop! As people were losing their capacity to breathe, I was sculpting lungs, and I think that focus itself was rejuvenating.
While originally created in 2021, Mycelial Lungs have undergone a single successful surgery. I added some tufts of grass made from marine debris and attached a custom fabricated powder coated steel back plate to keep all fibers secure over time. These lungs hang from a hook just above their neck, and their back plate has been stamped with my initials (JLH), along with their date of original creation.
