Sunday, Sep 13, 2026
Moldy Tombs, Feces, Corpses, and the Business of Fungal Decay
About
Mushrooms are increasingly being marketed as a solution for decomposing our waste and even our bodies. How effective are these methods, and what does the science actually support? Can fungi eat soiled plastic diapers? Can mushrooms “break down” the toxins released from our buried remains?
Please join us at the Henry L Ferguson Museum, Saturday September 13th at 2pm for an Illustrated Talk by current LW fellow Sam Shoemaker, whose work is a collaboration between himself and living fungi.
Based on his extensive experience with mushrooms, this lecture investigates the companies leading this emerging market, examining what they promise and where enthusiasm for fungal sustainability runs up against the limits of biology – and takes several anthropological detours through the history of our relationship to fungal decay.
Artist
Bio
Sam Shoemaker is an interdisciplinary artist working in collaboration with living fungi. His projects include large scale structures grown from mycelium composites, including a boat made from a single wild mushroom that he used to paddle 26.5 miles across the Catalina Channel. His work has been shown at Craft Contemporary, Fulcrum Arts, California African American Museum, Vielmetter, Armory Center for the Arts, and OCHI, and featured in the Guardian, W Magazine, and Los Angeles Times. He lives and works in Los Angeles and leads mushroom cultivation workshops throughout Southern California.
