Foraging for mushrooms with John Cage: writing, art, photography and
ephemera from an idiosyncratic chapter in the composer's life
Imagined as an extended mushroom-foraging expedition, John Cage: A
Mycological Foray gathers together Cage's mushroom-themed compositions,
photographs, illustrations and ephemera. Indeterminacy Stories and
other writings by Cage are interwoven throughout the first volume within
a central essay examining Cage's enduring relationship with mycology.
Also included is a transcript of Cage's 1983 performance, MUSHROOMS et
Variationes. The second volume is the inaugural reproduction of Cage's
1972 portfolio, Mushroom Book, authored in collaboration with
illustrator Lois Long and botanist Alexander H. Smith. Readers are thus
drawn through the landscape of Cage's mycologically centred oeuvre and
interests, discovering assorted works, images, compositions,
philosophies and ephemera, as one might encounter assorted fungi and
flora while foraging.
John Cage: A Mycological Foray constitutes a new, idiosyncratic
chapter in Cage's oeuvre, a departure from the composer's more
established narrative.
American composer and music theorist John Cage (1912-92) was a
pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music and a leading
figure of the postwar avant-garde. His influence extended to the realms
of dance, poetry, performance and visual art.
