Deb Faeyrglenn - Work in Progress

Deb Faeyrglenn Underground Forest: sharing water, sharing danger. raffia, recycled cloth, silk and cotton thread, found bird and insect charms. 270cm x 300cm x 150cm 

Deb Faeyrglenn Underground Forest: sharing water, sharing danger. raffia, recycled cloth, silk and cotton thread, found bird and insect charms. 270cm x 300cm x 150cm 

Deb Faeyrglenn Underground Forest: sharing water, sharing danger. raffia, recycled cloth, silk and cotton thread, found bird and insect charms. 270cm x 300cm x 150cm 

Artist Statement 

Science is revealing what indigenous communities and poets have long known: trees are connected and communicating via vast underground symbiotic networks of tree-root and fungal thread (mycelium). Trees share water, sugars and chemical information about threat of disease or insect invasion with nearby trees of same species and even with other species of trees. Older ‘hub’ trees have memory of chemical they can use to repel threatening insects and diseases. Sharing helps the trees survive tough times but the sharing web can also pass on deadly new diseases. 

By Installing a tree-root and mycelium web from the gallery ceiling I am tipping our above-ground perception of trees upside down – revealing the underworld of trees. 

Coiling, Stitching and knitting are processes that mirror the slow-time of tree-life. This artwork took two years to weave, stitch and knit.