Psilocybin Mushrooms - mushroom clouds in art

Europe House is hosting Tato Akhalkatsishvili’s multimedia project, Psilocybin Mushrooms, from 15 December 2015 to 17 January 2016. Held in Tbilisi, Georgia, Khatuna Khabuliani curated the exhibition. Akhalkatsishvili (1979-) is a Georgian artist who has exhibited across Europe, as well as in the United States and Japan.

Psilocybin Mushrooms, also known as psychedelic or magic mushrooms, are mushrooms with hallucinogenic properties – creating euphoria, altered thinking, and an altered sense of time. As Akhalkatsishvili states – ‘the real world turns into mirage and the border between facts and personal interpretations is blurred.’

Mushrooms also refer to the mushroom cloud after a nuclear blast. Akhalkatsishvili presents 24 works inspired by mushroom clouds. In 1946, as part of Operation Crossroads, the United States conducted two nuclear weapons tests (nuclear explosions) at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands (in the Pacific Ocean northeast of Australia).

The nuclear tests inspired French designer Louis Reard (1897-1984) to create a new swimsuit in 1946 for women – one divided into two parts like a ‘Bikini-divided atom.’ The ‘Atome’ was designed to be the world’s smallest bathing suit – similar costumes were worn since the 1930s but were not as controversial because they did not show the navel. The new swimsuit was, of course, the bikini, which endures to this day.

The documentary media footage of the tests showed gigantic mushroom formations. Akhalkatsishvili has used these documentary images to explore ‘reality and the absurd surrealistic visions associated with mushrooms – including the magic hallucinogenic mushrooms.

The series of conceptual landscapes by Akhalkatsishvili represent ‘artistic fantasies built on the crossing points of informational streams, where history, associations, and interpretations are constantly interacting.’ The artist’s work commences with sophisticated painting compositions ‘expanding the existential drama through objects in the installations, thus constructing a space of complex content.’

Within several works are scoured lines – either horizontal or vertical – which gives the impression of fragmented or ‘spoiled’ artwork, depicting the scars on the environmental landscape.