The Forest Underground at Archive Event VI: Miriam Sentler - The Chase, Looiersgracht 60, Amsterdam (NL). Copyright: Miriam Sentler/ LNDW Studio.

This work was developed during a residency at Jester (formerly CIAP/FLACC) and the Emile van Dorenmuseum in Genk (BE) and has been exhibited for the first time during Archive Event VI: Miriam Sentler - The Chase at Looiersgracht 60, Amsterdam. 

Team: Drake Stoughton (composition, concept), Archie Metaalbewerking Amsterdam (metal construction), Alicja Melzacka (support & organisation), Justin Bennett (audio recording in the mines and technical support).

Collection: Museum het Nieuwe Domein, Sittard, NL

  .  The making process of The Forest Underground is
generously supported by the O&O grant of CBK Rotterdam.



︎ Listen to a sound sample on soundcloud
     
︎ Read an interview about the work

(2022-ongoing) Audio installation, in collaboration with composer Drake Stoughton (1995, US/NL)

The Forest Underground starts from the sounds of the “underground forest” of the coal mines of Limburg and is developed in the context of Genk, one of the largest coal towns in Belgium. In the mining industry, trees, plants, and animals were treated as industrial resources. They were utilized to find coal, a fossil fuel that itself originates from ancient ecosystems and plant remains. However, that these natural entities also had material agency was for the miners of the last century self-evident. In the mines, the voices of birds, crickets and trees were heard on a daily basis, accompanying the hard work of the miners. Exemplary, the song of the cricket, which was brought into the mines along with the tree logs used in the construction of mine shafts, was audible even deep under the earth. The Scots pine was not selected for the support of the mine galleries because it was so sturdy, but because the wood cracked or “spoke” before it broke. The voice of the canary accompanied the long working days, and when it fell silent, it was time to run.

The device specially made for The Forest Underground is inspired by a bird respirator from the 19th century, made to revive canaries that fainted due to carbon monoxide poisoning. During a performance, the container brought the sounds of the underground forest back to the old, Limburgian mines.

The sound recording was played and re-recorded in the old mines of C-Mine in Belgium, enabling the architecture of the mines to participate in the soundscape of the work.