The final episode of the Xylophobia season presents a radio play written by our podcast guest curators, SUBTERRA: Marie-Chantal Hamrock and Astrid Björklund. Told through the voice of the Narrator, we are presented with an eccentric cast of characters living and contending with an ever diminished and hostile landscape, made up of old mines, towering blast furnaces, an inexplicable blackness which seems to spread insidiously, and a strange red substance that emanates from the earth. Among the characters are an unnamed man who searches in desperation for 'that place' using an old ironstone amule ..read more

This episode of the Fermynwoods Contemporary Art Podcast presents a new work, O' God of Weather by Saoirse Horne. O’ God of Weather combines elements of ambient music, folk song, and field recording, which together paint a vivid and imaginative world, rooted in messages of phantasm and fabrication. Somehow, through a painterly appreciation of texture, patience and solitude, the artist manages to create a sensitive and ethereal act of balladry – O’ God of Weather considers how deeply weather affects our lives - and how it can impede our access to woodland spaces. The work has a visionary awaren ..read more

This episode of the Fermynwoods Contemporary Art Podcast with artist Tosca Terán draws from fungal mycelial communication research to create a soundscape which the artist herself describes as ‘perhaps a bit ominous with a dash of science fiction’. Working with the bio-electrical activity of living mycelium, in Forest UnderSound = Ways of Knowing, Tosca reveals the ethereal fungi frequencies of the oyster mushroom, pleurotus ostreatus. Threading control voltages throughout what Tosca affectionately refers to as a 'Myco-Synth' the mushroom becomes a conduit for pulsating waves, coursing through ..read more

This episode of the Fermynwoods Contemporary Art Podcast features a rich and profound work by A Ton of Worms - a multidisciplinary artist and writer whose primary focus is an immersive communing with Taxus Baccata (the English yew), through both classic art forms as well as field recording, whittling, fermentation, and propagation. Their work also addresses the conservation of persecuted wildlife and plants, the maligned and misrepresented (often chthonic) species overlooked by many, and the beauty and effulgence of decay at the intersection of nature and civilisation. Wood as Home, Dirt as Ti ..read more

This video is a response by artist Sapphire Goss to Episode 20 of the Fermynwoods Podcast which features a discussion with artist Spencer Graham, whilst utilising the Music and Talk feature on Spotify, which allows for tracks to be integrated into the conversation. Spencer Graham is an artist based in Northamptonshire, UK. His practice revolves around a deep interest in music, and questions ideas relating to materiality and place. Utilising and sharing very specific collections of music, acquired according to self-set constraints, he considers how we access, consume, use, and most importantly ..read more

This episode of the Fermynwoods Contemporary Art Podcast features the work of Maja Zećo. In September 2022, Maja negotiated Hazel and Thoroughsale Woods from Corby town centre, Northamptonshire, as Silencer. Silencer is a performance in a sensory impairment soundwalking suit complete with earplugs and noise-cancelling headphones. Where Maja experienced the environment in complete silence the suit made ‘the other’ visible in public while concealing gender, body shape and voice. At once both a playful intervention and an unexpected encounter, the work has connotations of protective clothing and ..read more

For this episode of the Fermynwoods Contemporary Art Podcast artists Danny Treacy and Johannes Zits from our Treewilder exhibition at Barnwell Country Park, share a drink and conversation with Marie-Chantal Hamrock, one half of our podcast curators SUBTERRA.  With both artists work speaking to and of the trees, it has been suggested that Danny might represent the dark, whilst Johannes the light. However through the following conversation, both artists reveal how such binary oppositions might in fact not be the case and the works coalesce and converge - meeting at what is perhaps the most ..read more

This episode of the Fermynwoods Contemporary Art Podcast features a new audio essay, The forest will answer in the way you call to it, by Hanna Tuulikki, encouraging a conversation with the woods, exploring her Finnish heritage, and weaving together family stories, folklore and song. The piece reflects on how ideals of ecology, identity, and nationhood are constructed and entwined. The essay features audio extracts from her installation Under Forest Cover (Metsänpeiton Alla), commissioned for Helsinki Biennial 2021.  More at: https://fermynwoods.org/fermynwoods-podcast-17-hanna-tuulikki ..read more

A new video by Sapphire Goss in response to episode 16 of the Fermynwoods Contemporary Art Podcast by Maya Livio. Episode 16 features an original sonic essay by Maya Livio and JP Merz, followed by a discussion with Maya Livio: Salvaging Birds contains a chorus of human and non-human voices, drawing attention to biases within avian conservation datasets. Here she has set a research-driven essay against sounds generated by an AI which was trained on specific datasets, particularly ones from the Cornell Library of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library – the world’s largest and oldest scientific archive ..read more

This episode of the Fermynwoods Contemporary Art Podcast features Salvaging Birds, an original sonic essay by Maya Livio and JP Merz, followed by a discussion with Maya Livio. Through the use of what Maya calls expanded nonfiction, she constructs a haunting and lyrical sonic essay containing a chorus of both human and non-human voices. The work draws attention to the biases and misclassifications within avian conservation datasets. Here she has set a research-driven essay against sounds generated by an AI which was trained on specific datasets, particularly ones from the Cornell Library of Orn ..read more