Symbiosis

What was once a promise to another becomes one to herself. She turns into fungus, transforming the pain of loss into art— a symbiotic rebirth where decay becomes creation and darkness reveals her inner light.

This project was born from the quiet aftermath of a love that once promised forever. After the dissolution of her marriage, she chose not to erase the story but to transform it—to turn experience, memory, and loss into fertile ground. The wedding dress, once a symbol of devotion, becomes a second skin, woven from roots, spores, and mycelial threads—a living organism of memory, decay, and regeneration.

As a biologist, she is intimately aware of the wisdom of the fungal kingdom: how fungi thrive in darkness, how they decompose what has ended to give life to what is yet to come, how networks of mycelia invisibly connect life and sustain ecosystems. This knowledge becomes a lens through which she transforms her own story: pain and heartbreak are compost, grief becomes nourishment, and the forest becomes both laboratory and sanctuary.

In the stillness of the forest, she embodies both decay and rebirth, echoing Ophelia’s surrender yet transforming it. She is not drowned by loss, but nurtured by it—like mushrooms that grow slowly, patiently, and invisibly in the shade. The series reflects on how women can reclaim their own narratives, embrace the shadows, and recognize that the light they seek has always been within them.

Symbiosis is an intimate exploration of transformation through tenderness. It speaks of resilience, vulnerability, and the generative power of what has fallen apart. It is not about forgetting, but about integrating—allowing what once broke to breathe again, to become part of the cycles of life, death, and growth.

Through this act of reimagining, the past becomes nourishment, creation becomes healing, and the work becomes a meditation on the delicate balance between death and renewal, grief and growth, decay and creation. The forest, the fungi, and Ophelia’s myth converge to remind us that life is a network of interconnected transformations, and that beauty can arise from the most unexpected forms of surrender.

Art, in this series, is a human mycelium—a living network connecting memory, emotion, and transformation. Just as mycelial threads sustain the forest, our shared experiences and creative expressions sustain us.

Featuring my talented friend Fernanda, who brings the project to life.