Resilience, colonisation, quiet abundance
Every rock has a biography. A small, persistent cast of lichens, mosses, and algae write it in pigment and texture, thriving where little else can. This collection follows the subtle conquest of stone, from the ragged uplands to the saline fringe, revealing how nature’s earliest pioneers turn bare mineral into living habitat—one stubborn patch at a time.
From the Curator
"What looks inert is anything but. Lichens, part fungus, part algae, are evolutionary conspiracy—surviving on sunlight, air, and rain, they etch out existence on stone too thin for roots. Mosses follow, holding water, building soil. Each patch, colour, and fissure is a frontier. The closer you look, the more you see the battle lines—and alliances—etched across stone."
by Thomas
Xanthoria parietina blazes orange on sunlit calcareous walls, its colour borrowed from parietin—a natural sunscreen. More than decoration: it’s a bioindicator, fading in polluted air, thriving only where the wind is clean. Lichenologists call it a pioneer, the first to claim stone left bare by frost or time.
by Thomas
Yellow and black colonies sprawl over limestone, each splotch a partnership—fungus and alga, neither quite alive alone. The yellow is usnic acid, the black melanin, both chemical shields against sun and drought. Lichenologists have counted over 200 species on a single boulder, each finding its microclimate in a crack or bump.
by Thomas
Grimmia pulvinata crouches in convex cushions, silvery hairs catching dew on city cement and ancient gravestones alike. It’s a moss that flourishes where little else dares, indifferent to urban grime or upland exposure. Its silvery sheen isn’t just for show—those curly hairs reduce water loss, letting it wait out droughts.
by Thomas
Lasallia pustulata, or Pustulate Rock Tripe, looks like blistered leather glued to granite. Its thallus swells in rain, shrivels in drought, eating stone grain by grain. Arctic explorers once boiled it for food; in truth, it’s barely edible, but when nothing else will grow, it’s enough.
by Thomas
One sedimentary stone, a patch of yellow-green lichen—evidence of a slow, quiet siege. The lichen’s acids etch minerals, releasing nutrients for moss or fern spores waiting in the wind. Marine salt and wind carve the rest, but the biological weathering is the most relentless, and the most creative.
Each piece in this collection has been thoughtfully selected to create a cohesive visual narrative. Together, they explore themes of resilience, colonisation, quiet abundance.
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