Queer Theory for Lichen is a body of work created while in residence at The Burren College of Art. These pieces explore the non-binary lichen of the surrounding Burren ecosystem. Each image contains a manipulated polaroid of a different subspecies, present in the local ecology.

Lichens are a symbiotic merger of what is called a mycobiont and phyotobiont. A mycobiont is a lichen-forming fungus, whose role in the symbiosis is to construct the thallus-that is, plant or fungal body that is undifferentiated into roots, stems, or leaves-that houses the photosynthetic symbiotic partners. These partners, the photobionts, provide the thallus with energy through photosynthesis, and are either cyanobacteria or algae. They define binaries and mark the health of an ecosystem with their presence. Lichens are inherently queer, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all organisms.

“Queer theory for lichens suggests that we have never been individuals, and that attention to this can have positive biomedical consequences”.

- Griffiths, in his essay Queer Theory for Lichen