BIG ART PARTNERS

Documented artwork / interactive kinetic light sculpture

Shrumen Lumen

FoldHaus

Five origami mushroom sculptures change shape when visitors activate pressure pads. Hand-folded plastic caps expand and contract around mechanical frames, while embedded lighting transforms their appearance after dark.

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Documented work. Current availability, ownership and installation requirements must be confirmed with the artist.

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Verified artwork image for Shrumen Lumen
Verified artwork imageImage: americanart.si.edu ↗© 2026 Smithsonian American Art Museum (as credited at source)Photo by Libby Weiler, courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. (as credited at source)

At a glance

Year / version
2016
Materials
corrugated plastic, aluminum, steel, LEDs
Documented setting
both
Dimensions
Variable size
Dimensions apply to
The New York Botanical Garden’s exhibition credit states variable size; unit dimensions and selected configuration remain unconfirmed.
Availability
Unconfirmed

Places & versions

Installation history

Historical presentations. A past installation does not establish the current location or suitability for a new site.

  1. 2016

    Burning Man, Nevada

    Event
    Burning Man
    Start year
    2016
    Date meaning
    premiere

    Installation details checked 2026-10-16.

    Installation source

  2. 2018–2019

    Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

    Installation source

  3. 2024

    New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York

    Site
    New York Botanical Garden
    State / region
    NY
    Country
    United States (inferred; not independently confirmed)
    Start date
    2024-05-18
    End date
    2024-10-27
    Date meaning
    listing

    Installation details checked 2026-10-16.

    Installation source

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Research notes for project planning

How this work was made and presented

FoldHaus fabrication account for the 2016 work

Folding makes the movement possible

FoldHaus’s construction account traces Shrumen Lumen from an origami pattern to five responsive mushrooms. Each mushroom used eighteen sheets of corrugated plastic, hand folded and welded around an aluminum and steel structure; an industrial actuator drove the opening mechanism. Pressure pads invited visitors to trigger the caps. The project is a useful production precedent because its apparently soft, organic motion depended on repeated manual fabrication and mechanical coordination. A commissioning schedule should therefore distinguish development of the folding system from fabrication, assembly and interaction testing.

FoldHaus — Shrumen Lumen ↗ · Reviewed 2026-10-10

For your project brief

Which folding, actuator and visitor-trigger tests must be completed before full fabrication?

Big Art Partners planning prompt

Renwick Gallery, No Spectators, 2018–2019

A festival construction enters a museum

The Smithsonian presented Shrumen Lumen at the Renwick Gallery in its 2018–2019 No Spectators exhibition. Its account links the collective’s folding methods to an earlier collapsible shelter experiment and distinguishes a small design and engineering group from the larger volunteer fabrication effort. This history provides more than a list of venues: it explains how a practical construction method became an expressive vocabulary. For a museum host, interpretation could connect the mushrooms' movement to material experiments and collective making, alongside the immediate pleasure of activating them.

Smithsonian American Art Museum — FoldHaus ↗ · Reviewed 2026-10-10

For your project brief

How can a host explain the engineering and collaborative labor alongside visitor participation?

Big Art Partners planning prompt
Interactive art installations ↗Light art installations ↗Art documented at Burning Man ↗Kinetic sculpture and installations ↗

Plan the next step

How to plan an outdoor sculpture loan ↗How to prepare a site brief for large-scale public art ↗

Sources