The Kirouac Arevalo Family
"Throughout Physical/Material we embodied the decentralized structure and functionality of mycelium, to create open ended, non-linear narratives of our experiences and ideas. How do we communicate across species/kingdoms? How do we communicate across artistic disciplines? How does the thought/word/action become fixed in time through an archival process? How can we dive into real artistic collaboration with a 4 year old, giving her the freedom to initiate explorations, and how can we contribute to her inquiry and process? How can we create frameworks that easily invite her participation? We began our time at What Lab by getting to know the life on the block and traces thereof. A walk around the block brought encounters with a diversity of tenaciously weedy, hardy ornamental plants, evanescent mushrooms, scraps of human detritus. We offered each other treatments from the land, offering sensations and adornments in relationship to each other’s bodies."
Willoughby Arevalo (he/they) is a mycologist, visual artist, naturalist, writer and maker.
Isabelle Kirouac (she/her) is an interdisciplinary movement artist, performer and conceptualizer. We are both educators and musicians.
Uma Kirouac Arevalo (she/her) is our 4 year old daughter, as well as being a singer, storyteller, visual artist, voracious reader, maker of imaginary worlds and deeply connected human.
We have been collaboratively exploring and sharing the intersections between fungal ecology and community-engaged, interdisciplinary and experiential arts since 2014. We strive to stimulate creative and ecological thinking, social change and a more symbiotic way of life.