This weekend, a bunch of mushroom-themed art will sprout around the city as part of a worldwide scavenger hunt.
Game of Shrooms will see artists and art lovers coming together for a day-long “art and seek” in New West — all celebrating the beauty of the edible fungus.
Fulton Tom, founder of Free Little Art Gallery (FLAG) of New West, confirmed that the gallery will be participating in the international event that's in its fourth year now.
The little gallery on 815 Edinburgh St., which houses tiny curiosities for anyone to pick up for free, will transform into a cabinet of cryptic codes on June 10. On the day, instead of palm-sized art, it will feature a series of cards with clues on the whereabouts of mushroom-themed art around the area.
About 20 pieces of art — done by New West artists Merril Hall, Karla Winters, Tom and his wife Tracey — will be hidden in outdoor public places within the vicinity of FLAG (such as Moody Park, outside New Westminster Secondary School, outside Massey Theatre, etc.). Seekers might spot the works in the grass or in trees or attached to things such as stop signs and fire hydrants, said Tom.
The prize for those who crack the clue and find the art is the art itself.
This Easter egg hunt-like event was the brainchild of California-based artist and co-founder of Hi-Fructose art magazine, Daniel “Attaboy” Seifert, who had started planting mushroom-themed art in odd places as a way to fight his depression back in 2016 (as per his interview with SFGATE).
After three years of doing so, word spread; by 2019, artists all over the world were making and sharing their original mushroom-themed works, just like Seifert did, for strangers to find and keep.
The event had expanded from being a single person's hobby to one that saw hundreds of participants from Germany, Japan, the UK, India, Russia, Switzerland, the US, and many more countries, coming together to create and collect art for free.
Today, it's an annual "art show" of making and sharing, as per the official website.
It's a show that celebrates "the spirit of unexpected surprises.”
Artists who want to participate in FLAG’s Game of Shrooms event can do so by sending an Instagram message to the gallery by June 9. Artists can also participate independently by adding their general location on the Game of Shrooms Global Map, and adding clues to their art’s location via social media.
