Mushroom hand

This piece was created by chance.

While in the Biolab, I used gloves to experiment with using them as a mould for the mushroom to grow in. The first attempt was only partially successful, with the mushrooms fully forming around the wrist but not the fingers. To complete the hand, I used another glove to create the fingers and palm. I placed the mushroom pieces next to each other and connected them with wooden sticks, hoping they would fuse together. Although the resulting shape was not a perfect copy of a human hand, the fungus grew over the wood and joined the two parts together to form a complete hand. The experiment was successful. This was a very interesting observation and made me think about healing. While humans can heal minor injuries such as scars, reattaching severed hands is not as simple as it is for mushrooms. Can mushrooms be used for medicinal purposes beyond what is currently known?

In this piece, the mushroom is almost portrayed as having healing properties, as it is able to join two parts of the body together.

To exhibit the hand during the Winterwerkschau, I have corrected its imperfections by putting some bandages on it. Although it is not perfectly shaped, it resembles a human hand quite well, especially considering that it was made using only two gloves. Beyond the exhibition, this mushroom-shaped hand could be used for jewellery modelling or as a decorative storage for items such as rings and bracelets.

Mushroom hand during the exhibition "Design with Fungi and Slime Molds" at the Winterwerkschau.