The Fairy Ring: Mycoremediation Mother Patch, Newtown Creek
Artist
Jan Mun
Partners/Collaborators
New York Hall of Science/NYSCI Designer-in-Residence Program
Explainers
Shana Anton, Elijah Browne, Peter Ciavarella, Fatima Khuda, Rocio Martinez, Navida Rukhsha
One of sixteen projects in the 2018 exhibition Ecological Consciousness: Artist as Instigator.
Photo: John Maggiotto
Working with the NYSCI Explainers, Jan Mun created a stand-alone diorama with living mushroom mycelium, enclosed with a map of Newtown Creek etched onto clear acrylic with cartography by Ed Jacobus. Three posters with critical info were displayed on the stand: An Introduction to Urban (Soil) Bioremediation; Contaminants of Concern and Newtown Creek Map. This project activates Mun’s use of mycoremediation and art to innovate bioremediation practices for a historically contaminated community on the border of Queens and Brooklyn. To realize this part of the project, she worked with six Explainers to build an awareness campaign to support her ultimate goal to conduct a New York City-supported scientific field experiment on bioremediation on the footprint of a former oil tank along Newtown Creek. The project is part of Mun’s ongoing engagement with the waterway to research the use of bioremediation to reduce toxins in the environment.