On 13 April 2024 Stephen Hobbs and Afrifungi’s Shiitake Mushroom log installation at the Blue House was launched with a public presentation and a serving of Lion’s mane and Oyster Mushrooms. Hobbs returns with a more fantastical take on the terraforming capabilities of fungus, speculation around their intergalactic travels, and their potential for reimaging our approach to the built environment. Hobbs’ new installation draws from his fascination with a super large fruiting mushroom species  Ganoderma destructans, a parasitic fungus attacking the root system and base of a Stinkwood tree close to his house in Linden and the presence of a second specimen clutching a Stinkwood tree diagonally opposite on the corresponding residential block.

This new body of work incorporates living mediums such as mycelium and mushrooms into mixed

media sculpture, complimented by a series of new drawings. For Hobbs the ongoing fascination with

growing and designing ‘things’ with mycelium offers a complimentary and dynamic lens through which

to critique Johannesburg’s intrinsic nature of collapsing and rebuilding.