Fungi | Stool Poplar

The intimate transformative wonder of Nature hidden in the wood

For The Fungi collection, alcarol walks in the Italian Dolomite forests selecting dead trees and abandoned logs with the native populations of fungi that attack them during the final stages of their life cycle, and cut planks preserving their natural live edges. One of the outstanding effects of the early stages of wood decay is the fungi texture inside the matter of the tree: the fungal growth can create some of the most dramatic and beautiful wood color changes with regions of discoloration and intricate patterns of amazing dark lines, that look like free-form art drawn with a calligraphy pen, adding a new dimension to the woodgrain.

Wood decay fungi is always unique. No two pieces are exactly the same because there’s precise time, place and environmental conditions for its genesis.
alcarol main action is sectioning, and when the saw has finished his work our eyes can see the hidden world of Nature, sometimes simply amazing. The section planes – through touch, sight and olfaction – allow you to transcend the ordinary perception of a place, discovering the intimate transformative wonder of Nature.

With an aim to capture the fungal metamorphic instant by freezing time at the end of the tree’s life cycle, alcarol employs experimental processes to preserve the raw material exactly as it appears in his original habitat, and gives it a new life before it goes to waste.
While the wood in section planes remains uncovered, the natural wood live edges are frozen in a special extraclear resin resembling the ice that in winter blocked the fungal activity. The transient beauty of Nature becomes eternal.

“In Nature nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.”
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier