Rinna Soriano’s favorite part of her work is sanding. At her workbench, she stays focused, following the grain, adjusting to changes in its direction. Narra, she has learned, can have interlocking grain. A piece of mango once proved particularly difficult until a worker explained that she had reached the point where a branch once grew […]
“III. Self-Medicate: Indulge”: Pat Frades’ New Fungi-Filled Exhibit
Pat Frades pampers the senses during her exhibition at Galerie Stephanie, evoking an Alice in Wonderland sense of whimsy through her works. In her continued exploration of the senses, the artist creates a new immersive world focused on the idea of taste.
III. Self-Medicate: Indulge is the third exhibit of Frades’ Self-Medicate series. These exhibits, which will number five in all when finished, gives Frades free reign to explore the senses in relation to her interest in mushrooms and fungi. Past exhibits Allure and Breathe In explored the senses of sight and smell, respectively.
Indulge, meanwhile, explores the sense of taste. It fixates on the symbiotic togetherness of the nature around us, and illustrates that point through the usage of mushrooms in different approaches in the exhibit. Fungi and mushrooms are critical for our environment to thrive, and Frades uses her art in this exhibit to highlight its beauty beyond these functions.
Dining in Fungus
The set-up for the exhibit welcomes visitors to a feast of the senses. Pat Frades uses a “pastel and candy-colored palette” for the aesthetic of the mushrooms and other fungi. It makes them seem more wonderful, in a way, emanating a child-like vibe that encourages exploration.
The central work for Indulge is a white table filled with plants, leaves, and busts with blooming mushrooms on them. Frades worked on the head sculptures, which use strangely pleasant and neutral facial expressions even as mushrooms literally crack open through their face.
At the head of the table sits a mannequin whose whole face is covered in different types of fungi. The design is eerily close to the zombified people in The Last of Us, but it doesn’t evoke the same sense of fear. The pastel color scheme of the mushrooms provides an approachableness to the work, and the mannequin sits in a mannered way that relaxes the visitors.
Other mannequins with faces covered in mushroom and fungi litter the exhibit. These showcase the collaborative works between Frades and costume designer KC Contrevida. They created clothes “made from kombucha’s symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, as well as from tea bags.”
Symbiotic Works
For III. Self-Medicate: Indulge, the artist worked with Chef Iyay Ignacio of Mouldy Blooms to create some edible works that allow viewers to literally “taste the work in front of them.” In its most Alice in Wonderland choice, they laid out the food on the table in a mushroom-shaped bowl. The layout appeals to our sense of curiosity, a truly tempting invitation to indulge in the food in front of you.
Beyond the central table, Pat Frades fills this mushroom utopia with assortments of hues which complement the works. On the wall are multiple paintings where she makes the mushroom blooms look like flowers floating in water.
It pushes for a sense of serenity through association, reminding us that mushrooms work similarly to flowers in function, and thus deserve to be seen in the same sense of beauty and awe that we see their more delicate plant counterparts.
III. Self-Medicate: Indulge really immerses visitors to a new perspective of a world we don’t necessarily think about. Pat Frades doesn’t just show us a part of an environment that’s largely underground; the artist shows us the beauty which exists within the works being showcased.
Related reading: Galerie Stephanie Debuts Two New Exhibits on Nature and City Life
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