UCSD Final Major Exhibition

End of year exhibition to complete my FdA Contemporary Arts Practice at University Center South Devon, Paignton. June 2025.​

​

Seeing the world through the lens of fungi is through the lens of symbiosis. The primary lesson that fungi teach is that all life is interconnected, and as the world's grand connectors, decomposers, and resource distributors, mycelial networks demonstrate the universal principle of mutual aid. By taking influence from, and promoting the shared knowledge of the fungal kingdom, artists can provide innovative tools that open avenues of transformative, community-centred, and dialogical approaches that encourage wider societal, cultural, and environmental advancements to respond to a litany of growing complex challenges. These changes, however, can only be implemented through a wider understanding and shift towards symbiotic relationships.

Through her experimental pieces, Shiv explores the potential for fungi as a catalyst for change. By educating and opening dialogues about fungi, she hopes to form a renewed connection to human traditions while reconnecting to nature, sparking a curiosity that will spawn the next generation of radical mycologists.

​

By building a living exhibition, Shiv created progressive works of art that changed and grew throughout the week, inviting her audience back to embrace elements of unpredictability and chaos which are inherent when nature takes it's course.