Based in Taiwan. Active since 2004
White Fungus began in the spirit of pure anarchy. It was initiated as a pseudo-anonymous protest against corporate interests overriding community values and concerns in Wellington, New Zealand, where the publication was initially based. In particular, the first issue was directed as a protest against the building of an inner-city motorway that has subsequently displaced Wellington’s artists and left a hollow commercial shell where there was once a vibrant community. The publication was produced quickly on a photocopier, wrapped in Christmas paper and hurled anonymously through the entrances of local businesses. The road was built but nearly nine years on this publication continues.
White Fungus is now based in Taiwan where we discovered artists encountering their own struggles with consumerism, non-responsive government and a lack of space for activities that run counter to instrumental commercialism. Now both Taiwanese and New Zealand culture are incorporated into a rich tapestry that extends across the world. White Fungus is committed to localism in its most resistant forms, but conducts that engagement on a global scale. We believe that in order to counter the effects of globalization and its standardizing impact, it is necessary to develop an alternative globalization, one that connects diffuse points of resistance and self-determination across the world in a way that amplifies rather than reduces difference.
