Giant Triple Mushroom

Carsten Höller’s gigantic mushrooms evoke a sense of an enchanted forest. Each sculpture is composed of three different species, fused together on a shared stem. The poisonous red fly agaric dominates in colour and size and appears in various stages of development. But do not assume that the smaller mushrooms are harmless – they are in fact more insidious, since their muted colours do not so clearly signal the presence of toxic hallucinogens. Höller, born in Belgium and based in Sweden, holds a PhD in biology and wrote his dissertation on insect communication through scent. Gradually he turned to art, continuing to explore everyday phenomena, objects and subjects that in different ways relate to how human states of mind can be influenced and transformed.