Alessandra La Marca | Monotropa Uniflora

Alessandre La Marca

Dimensions
95.50cm H x 78cm W x 3.50cm D

Technique
oil color on raw canvas, fir wood

Creation year
2023

Series
UNIQUE PIECE.

Monotropa uniflora is a plant that has lost the ability to carry out photosynthesis due to the shaded locations where it grows. However, thanks to the communicative action of certain fungi attached to its roots, it manages to obtain the necessary nutrients from surrounding plant species.

Sound Art

Fungal connections interlink different plant species, keeping a family of Monotropa alive that has lost the ability to photosynthesize.

TRANSLUCENT FLOWERS

Amidst the shadowy darkness of the undergrowth, faint glimpses of ethereal Translucent Flowers can be seen, enveloped in a peculiar ghostly aura. Their pallor paradoxically makes them more visible than the rest. The impenetrable darkness deprives the Flowers’ leaves of the ability to attract light, causing them to wither until they fall onto the damp ground, becoming compost for the very plant that had given birth to them, nourishment for the same body that had shed them.

The metamorphosis happening above ground wasn’t the only one; even beneath the surface, something was occurring. Tiny Mycorrhizal fungi were extending their hyphae, clinging to the roots of the plants that now bore new appearances. It was later discovered that they were the ones destined to revive the flowers above.

All that whiteness signifies loss and rebirth, an interweaving of lives that have generated stories.

Other works by Alessandra La Marca
Origin
Verderame Carpet
Monotropa Uniflora
Aquatic Roots
White Metamorphosis

Brutal metamorphosis
Fungal Connections
Lichens
Jellyfish