White Fungus to be part of Millennium Magazines at MoMA

Art magazine White Fungus will be part of the exhibition Millennium Magazines at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The exhibition, which opens on February 20, is a survey of artists’ magazines published since 2000. It will explore the various ways in which contemporary artists utilize the magazine format as an experimental space for the presentation of works and text.

Throughout the 20th century, the activities of groups and collectives were often codified first in the informal context of a magazine or journal; this exhibition, drawn from the holdings of the MoMA Library, follows the practice into the 21st century.

The works on view range from community-building newspapers to image-only photography magazines to conceptual projects. Methods of design, image-making, editing, printing, and distribution are examined, and there are obvious connections to the past lineage of artists’ magazines and smaller architecture and design magazines. This brief tour of contemporary artists' magazines provides a view into these practices and represents MoMA Library’s effort to document and collect this medium.

White Fungus began in Wellington in 2004 as free photocopied handout protesting the building of the city’s inner-city bypass in the lead-up to local body elections. The first issue was produced using a photocopier and each copy was wrapped in Christmas paper and hurled through the entrances of stores and businesses throughout the city.

Founded by the brothers Ron and Mark Hanson, the name of the publication comes from a can of “white fungus” the Hansons discovered in their local supermarket in the industrial zone of Taichung City, Taiwan in 2003. The fungus, with the brand-name “KKK”, was a short-lived and unsuccessful consumer product that is no longer on the market. But each cover of the magazine is derived from a scan of the can in what the Hansons say is a response to the work of Andy Warhol.

The magazine has evolved into a quality print publication, currently 162 pages, which features writing on the visual arts, new music, history, politics, plus comics and original art works. The new 12th issue comes with a CD including live recordings of the New Zealand artists Our Love Will Destroy the World (Campbell Kneale) and David Watson with Sean Meehan from an event White Fungus held in 2010 in New York at the gallery P.P.O.W.

White Fungus relocated to Taiwan In 2009 but has continued to maintain strong coverage of the New Zealand arts. The current issue features articles on the artists Simon Denny and Tao Wells, an in-depth history article on nuclear testing in the Pacific leading up to the Rainbow Warrior bombing, new commissioned comics by Barry Linton and Tim Bollinger, and a review by the Christchurch writer Hamish Wynn of the books This is Not a Program and Introduction to Civil War by the radical French philosophers Tiqqun. The issue was released with an event at Taipei Contemporary Art Center featuring a performance by the Beijing noise artist Yan Jun.