The Arizical is a new immersive piece which is now on exhibition at Grosvenor Park in Chester until the end on March. It is part of Spring Blooms, the third and final part of Chester Designed by Nature, a project commissioned and produced by Wild Rumpus.
It is contemplation space inspired by organic networks, like those of fungi mycelium, plant roots and nerve synapses. Whether it’s microcosmic scales within our bodies or hidden underground in the dark, they are creeping, stirring, terraforming.
The apparently chaotic directions that these mysterious networks create when they form themselves, are efficient systems of patterns and pathways within the worlds they inhabit.
The Arizical is a portal and a place of transformation, a labyrinth that visitors can journey through.
You can listen to the soundscape here
The physical process of walking this path is significant – like a giant spring, it draws people in and releases them again – and as visitors make their way through the installation, they become lost, absorbed in the structure and sounds.
They are metaphorically dissolved, and then emerge from a different direction. This is the way the fungi work too, continually converting matter back into its essential elements ready for regrowth.
The installation has a footprint of around 6m x 7m and a separate entrance and exit. It is constructed from local wood and repurposed steel. The sound has been created using the recordings of spring growth – the internal and invisible movement of structure and fluid through networks and pathways all around us.