Fungal Aesthetics and Multispecies Semiosis in Visual Art

This article examines the semiotic and biosemiotic significance of fungal imagery in visual culture, tracing representations of mushrooms and fungi from prehistoric and medieval traditions to contemporary bio-art and multispecies installations. Drawing on Peircean semiotics, Greimassian visual semiotics, plastic semiotics, and biosemiotic concepts of Umwelt and ecological perception, the study investigates how fungal forms function as signs through which ecological relations, cultural meanings, and multispecies imaginaries become perceptible. Through a diachronic analysis of artistic representation ranging from shamanic depictions and Baroque still lifes to the contemporary works of Nicolas Party, Vicki Sawyer, Saša Spačal, and Theresa Schubert, the article demonstrates a gradual transition from symbolic representation toward relational and process-oriented modes of signification. The analysis shows that fungi occupy a distinctive position within visual culture because of their biological and symbolic liminality. Diachronically and synchronically, fungal imagery repeatedly engages themes of transformation, interdependence, mediation, and ecological connectivity. Contemporary works increasingly move beyond depicting fungi as visual subjects, incorporating fungal materials, growth processes, and mycelial networks into artistic practice itself. As a result, fungi appear less as object of observation and increasingly as mediators through which relationships among organisms, environments, technologies, and cultural meanings are explored. The article argues that this change signals a broader reorientation in visual culture, one that directs attention toward process, relation, and ecological interdependence as fundamental conditions of life.