THE DISTINCTIVE GRAFFITI TAG SEEMED TO BE PLASTERED ALL OVER THE CITY. BUT WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE? THE ANSWER TO THAT WAS NOT SO EASY TO FIND.
The videos I’ve been pouring over are dark and grainy, with quick cuts of light, the fast wheeze of paint followed by the clanging of the metal ball against the can. It’s also how I feel as I try to write this story — in the dark, with brief glimpses of what it is I’ve been seeking for months. A tease of revelation, then a shuttering of the light.
Since the beginning of last summer, I’ve been looking for Mr. Mr. Fungi — or rather, the person who scales buildings, overpasses, and bridges around Chicago, painting “Mr. Mr. Fungi” in massive block letters on brick or windows or the concrete framing the expressways.
One night, my husband comes home from a meeting and shows me his phone. “Look what I found,” he says, flashing a photo of “Mr. Mr. Fungi” plastered across a warehouse on the river, near Bridgeport. The windows on the river-facing wall are dotted with the word “fungi.”
The name is formal (Mr.), but irreverent (Mr. Mr.), with a sense of whimsy (Fungi). It’s everywhere: at the intersection of Irving Park and Western, a blur on I-90 East as I drive downtown. Letterforms, six to 10 feet high, spaced with precision, dangling above the movement of the city on high-rises and highwayscapes.
“Yeah! I’ve seen that around town. Who is this guy?” is the common refrain whenever I bring up Mr. Mr. Fungi to my friends and colleagues. So I Google him (or her, or they). The search results show a Reddit discussion thread, a collection of images featuring “Mr. Mr. Fungi” tags from amateur urban landscape photographers, and an article about a 2016 arrest in Berwyn of a graffiti artist who was charged with defacing property with “fungi” but without the “Mr. Mr.” The results quickly devolve into articles about beautifully rendered murals of mushrooms.
I start with the Reddit thread and, to my delight, find a community of people who share my curiosity. There’s another image, a link to the article about the Berwyn arrest (“Do y’all think this is the same? Looks like similar writing style”), and mentions of locations where folks have spotted a “Mr. Mr. Fungi”:
Lord_Poop1: Yea, there’s one at an abandoned hospital near my school and recently passed one earlier today. And that was my second encounter with it.
theYoungNilo: He climbs his way up to some crazy places. I just saw a fresh one on my way home on the BNSF.
Antique-Campaign3489: i see his tags all over the city i stg.
I also see a comment from Fatpregnantlady: “Fungi has an Instagram .” I immediately click the Redditor’s name, hoping to see what else the user has posted—something that might establish credibility or give me a sense of who this person could be. Instead, I’m taken to a page that tells me the account has
