Sigrún Thorlacius
Sigrún Thorlacius is a biologist and designer, whose practice engages with ecological processes and more-than-human temporalities. Drawing on biomimicry and principles of slow design, she explores how biological systems can inform new ways of thinking about care, transformation, and coexistence. Her work often centres on processes of decay, regeneration, and material change, attending to the entangled relations between human-made structures and living organisms. Through installations and research-based projects —including work on fungi and wetland ecosystems— she examines how environmental and social wellbeing are interconnected across different scales of time and life.
A Matter of Time (Healing Earth)
Car Motor, Fungi (Oyster Mushroom), 2015
Healing Earth presents a car engine gradually decomposed by fungi. Industrial matter is brought into contact with biological processes, allowing decay to unfold over time. The fungi used are known for their capacity to absorb and break down motor oil, petroleum products, and heavy metals. The work points to the practices of burying toxic and industrial waste in landfills, but offers a long term solution to remediate pollution created by these landfills. Healing Earth engages with more-than-human temporalities, where breakdown becomes a form of transformation, pointing to slow cycles of soil regeneration.
A Matter of Time (Healing Earth)
Car Motor, Fungi (Oyster Mushroom), 2015
Healing Earth presents a car engine gradually decomposed by fungi. Industrial matter is brought into contact with biological processes, allowing decay to unfold over time. The fungi used are known for their capacity to absorb and break down motor oil, petroleum products, and heavy metals. The work points to the practices of burying toxic and industrial waste in landfills, but offers a long term solution to remediate pollution created by these landfills. Healing Earth engages with more-than-human temporalities, where breakdown becomes a form of transformation, pointing to slow cycles of soil regeneration.
