Fruiting Bodies

The fruiting bodies of the title refer to the mushrooms that Ying Ang photographed in Melbourne’s parks, through their cycles of growth, decay and regeneration. Ang’s mushrooms are earthy, found sculptures: bodies with expanses of folds, wrinkles and yearnings for darkness and light. Photographed while walking through inner-city parks close to the artist’s home in Melbourne, the series also examines how the fetishization of fertility has shaped cultural perceptions of women, nature and reproduction, questioning whether growth and abundance must always serve a reproductive imperative.