Meredith Leich

A gigantic fallen silver maple, the “Mothership” was given its name by a group of evolutionary biologists from University of Virginia’s Mountain Lake Biological Station, elevation 4,000 ft, at the border of Virginia and West Virginia. The Brodie Lab studies populations of forked fungus beetles in Pond Drain, an area of old-growth forest adjacent to the station. On the “Mothership,” the scientists found a bumper-crop of these slow-moving beetles, who live out their lives on the bright orange shelf fungi that emerge from decomposing wood. For several years, the scientists observed the tree and its tiny, nocturnally-active inhabitants by flashlight in night shifts, camped out amidst the ferns. Eventually, the conditions on the tree shifted so that it could no longer support the same population of beetles, and the study moved elsewhere.

Using the Brodie Lab’s video footage of the forked fungus beetles, The Mothership is a site-specific projection that collages video and animation evoking the inner transport system of a living tree (xylem and phloem), the moon rise, spores descending in the forest, and the beetles themselves, presented here as small white ghosts of light. The projection was screened over two evenings in July 2023.

Thanks to the Professors Vince Formica, Butch Brodie, and Eric Nagy; the Mountain Lake Biological Station staff and community; and sound artist Stephen Vitiello, who recorded additional sound for the Mothership video documentation.