Photographing the Act of Rot: On Maksud Ali Mondal’s Biotope

Maksud Ali Mondal’s practice is characterised by the observation of fungal life and creating conditions for their transformation, with the understanding that no state in their mutation is final. He takes an interest in everyday, banal objects and inspects them to interrogate non-human agency as it manifests in microscopic life. Outside the spectrum of direct visibility, these organisms are viewed through micrographic equipment that captures their structural specifics. The artist’s predilection for microbial life comes from a refusal to sterilise, wanting instead to observe how nature follows certain trajectories when left to its own devices. Using fungi as both an aesthetic and a methodology, Mondal’s work situates itself in the interdisciplinary interface of art, science, gardening and agriculture.

During a residency at HH Arts Spaces, Goa (supported by the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation) in 2021, Mondal worked on a series titled Biotope. Here, he created the condition for fungi germination by placing a perishable object between two glass panes, creating boxes with dimensions of five by six inches each. He subsequently secured the concerned material in such a manner that it did not come in contact with the air or its constitutive spores. Recreating a laboratory setting (but without its scientific imperative), the intention was to observe the familiar object expand, deflate and reorder itself completely in the orchestrated vacuum. Per the artist’s observations, the objects created their respective microbiomes, fed on by worms that manifested in the hermetically sealed matter itself. The reactions, Mondal explained, were a physical effect of the objects’ interaction with the spores that were already present in them before the condition for rot was created. His observation of the autogenetic mode—by which the death and regeneration of fungi become contiguous processes—points to the cooperative resilience of live cultures. A durational engagement with fungal spores, the evolution of the mould continues to register in colour-changes and the scale of “spoilage” on the object, indicating its role as a colonising agent that is perpetually alive and acting.

All images by Maksud Ali Mondal. From the series Biotope. Images courtesy of the artist. 

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