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INTIMATES
LICHEN::LACE
INTIMATES
"Lichens are usually conceived as a symbiosis between fungi and algae. Each lichen, then, brings together (at least) two separate kingdoms of life in a relationship that functions like an organism in its own right. Since the nineteenth century, “lichenologists” have put forward many theories and metaphors to explain why this happens: Lichens are fungi that have discovered agriculture; lichen fungi are parasites that have become benevolent; lichen algae are solar panels for the fungi; lichen fungi are greenhouses for the algae...
"...If such theories are limited to the history of science and the ontology of lichens themselves, recent political and cultural theorists evoke lichens with broader implications. In Donna Haraway’s work, for instance, lichens are non-metaphorical signals for multispecies processes of “becoming-with”; for Richard Halperin, they signify that nature has never been heteronormative." - Derek Woods and Amelia Groom for diffrakt
