SUE HUANG & JONAH KING: HONEY FUNGUS

The debut collection of HONEY FUNGUS SPECIMENS comprises nine digital C-prints (each an edition of five). Each specimen is an inflated body processed via 3D software and placed in a virtual glass specimen box. These fungal avatars are captured mid-dance, contorting to their unique rhythms. 

At the core Honey Fungus is the mycelium network’s ecosystem, which nourishes, feeds, mates, protects, and spreads like a living internet. As viewers explore the underworld of spores and its soundscape, they encounter fungal specimens moving through a viscous liquid. These sensual specimens are an AI-generated amalgamation of erotica and exotic fungi, resulting in a colorful and complex hybrid body that is part human, part mushroom.

The artists explain, “Human sperm — with their little wiggling tails — are identical to the spores of the Chytrid mushroom. In 1997, this discovery led scientists to redesign the species table, uniting animals and fungi into the same kingdom. We are exploring new perspectives of interspecies, blurred boundaries of one body to another, and perhaps we are ultimately all part of one queer intergalactic body.”