Daniel Popper
Daniel Popper, born in South Africa in 1983, is a multidisciplinary artist renowned for his monumental sculptures that merge the organic spirit of nature with the imaginative essence of the divine. His visionary, large-scale figures, crafted from materials like wood, fiberglass, and Fiber Glass Reinforced Cement (FGRC), evoke a sense of the sacred and transcendental.
Popper’s work transforms public and private spaces into surreal environments, inviting viewers to engage with hybrid entities that blend elements of nature and humanity. These sculptures often serve as stages, gateways, or chapels at major art and music festivals such as Afrikaburn, Boom Festival, Electric Daisy Carnival, and Electric Forest. His installations at Morton Arboretum and EJI’s New Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery, Alabama, carry on this tradition, forging a connection between viewers and the restorative power of nature.
His art, which includes both permanent and temporary works across the USA and Croatia, reflects an ecological aesthetic that emphasizes harmony with the environment rather than dominance. Popper’s creations invite contemplation, blending the material with the numinous, and often feature illuminating projections that enhance their mystical quality. These elemental monuments, whether enduring or ephemeral, serve as totems for reflection and connection, encapsulating a profound interplay between art, nature, and the human spirit.
Mycelia
Mycelia is named for the filigreed threads of fungi that transmit nutrients between plants and fungi. Set beneath the trees, Mycelia draws attention to the links between humans and the natural world and our interconnectedness with plants and fungi specifically.
German forest scientist and author Peter Wohlleben dubbed this network the “woodwide web”, as it is through the mycelium that trees “communicate”. Mushrooms are the fruit of the mycorrhizal network fungus, and connect trees through tiny threads called mycelium.
Popper’s artwork aims to show the link that we humans share with trees and mycelia alike: there’s no separation between the two as they are both part of an intricate whole. The mushrooms grow from within the figure, symbolizing the fungi’s consciousness. They bloom only for a short time before decaying and fertilizing the soil for the next mycelia.
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