Beautiful butterflies, stunning flowers, and fruiting trees attract and deflect attention with their often intricate colouration. Targeted for particular audiences, a single color can carry conflicting messages. In nature, orange signals vitamin rich potency and likewise poisonous lethal doses, though it also functions simply as a scare tactic. In works by artist Carsten Höller, orange mushroom caps recall (in gross scales) the natural poisons they indicate. In his 2009 work, Doppelpilzvitrine (24 Doppelpilze) (and in his recent large-scale sculptural installation, Doppelpilzuhr), Höller replicates spliced mushroom pairings in such scientific detail it is difficult to draw the line between artistic endeavor and experimental inquiry. The orange of these mushrooms, the fly amanita, which are the common denominator of his mushroom works, acts as a sign-posting of their Gift. (Gift is German for poison.) Their presentation in pristine glass cases cites research and archival collections, while their grafted halves belay their sequential categorization. From one side of the vitrine an assortment of fungi in varying shapes and sizes are visible, while from the other side the bright orange and white speckled specimens of the rare fly amanita dominate the view.
Carsten Höller, Doppelpilzvitrine (24 Doppelpilze), 2009
145 x 25 x 175 cm, Photo (of side-view): Carsten Eisfeld, Courtesy: Esther Schipper
