Into the Dark Woods

The woods have long held a significant place in our history and folk law as sites of caution, the unknown and danger. They have functioned as a transgressive place and housed immoral cultures in cautionary tales, literature, and shadowy corners of the human condition. The New Forest has been at the centre of this history with the darker side. It is known as one of the most haunted places in the UK, it is full of stories of witchcraft and murders, historic and contemporary. Into the Dark Woods is an experimental collaboration between material-based artists who are working towards creating an atmospheric response to Sway’s location as a metaphor to the dark pandemic times we are living in. The artists have reflected on the historic language of waving as an activation point, a once a universal skill now relegated to craft through technology. Weaving language includes narratives being woven in by writer, storylines in soaps or internet and blog links referred to as threads. To heckle comes from a spinning term for a harsh metal comb used to tease out course fleece or linen, similarly, to get knotted and of course the endless significance of weaving and Greek literature. The forest like structure will be mostly made of woven ‘trees’ stretching from ground to ceiling and lit theatrically, illuminating the richness of the woven trunks and casting shadows, extending the forest outwards beyond its physical bounds. Other trees will punctuate the space. There will be at least one night-time event called Spinning a Yarn – a telling of disturbing fairy tales as they used to be, dark and gruesome. Guests to bring a cushion to sit in the dark wood.