Mushrooms and Institutions reveals the complicated history of institutionalization in Canada while also representing disabled people as empowered agents in their own histories. The work is a research project that culminates into a representational, transparent acrylic model of Canadian institutions. Within each acrylic model is a blend of sculptural, and real local mushrooms that were foraged within the communities near the institutions. A video plays from within the acrylic model revealing the hidden histories and the ongoing impact of institutionalization in Canada, through a collage of archive images, recent photos, and footage of foraging and mushrooms.
In Western culture, mushrooms were associated with death, disease, and decay, to the point of being avoided out of repulsion or fear. Similarly, the negative connotations of disability have driven segregation and abuse, such as that seen in many institutions. The disability community has reclaimed mushrooms as a symbol of resistance and positive representations of life-death cycles because they embody interconnectedness, adaptability, and a refusal to accept medicalized notions of “health.”
By creating an ecosystem of mushrooms in these acrylic institutions, the work will symbolically allow viewers to peek within buildings that were intentionally designed to segregate undesirables from the general public.
Emery Vanderburgh 