Regarding Forests

Regarding Forests is a multisensory, immersive touring exhibition by artist Chrystel Lebas, presented in collaboration with the Wellcome Collection.

From serenity to ecstasy, contentment to awe, happiness encompasses many different positive feelings. What it means to be happy has preoccupied thinkers throughout history, and each of us has our own ways of feeling good. On Happiness is a season of free events, activities and two exhibitions – Joy and Tranquillity – which celebrate the complexity of positive emotions and invite you to explore the big questions.

‘Regarding Forests’ was commissioned by the Wellcome Collection (curators Laurie Britton- Newell and George Vassey) to respond to the theme of ‘Tranquillity’ coinciding with the ‘On Happiness’ season from summer 2021 to winter 2022.
The immersive installation brings together large-scale analogue photographs, ambisonic soundscape and scent.

‘Regarding Forests’ stems from previous series, ‘Abyss’, ‘Between Dog and Wolf’ and ‘Blue Hour’. Immersive analogue photographs taken in forests and wildernesses during the twilight hour using slow large format camera processes, consider notions of the sublime and our relationship to the natural world. The works highlight the complexity of these locations, showing a landscape controlled by humans and at the same time observing natural phenomena occurring at specific time and place.

Researchers at the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo first publicised their investigation into the health benefits of Shinrin-yoku or ‘Forest bathing’ in the 1980s. These studies suggest that the multi-sensory experience of being in nature calms the stress response of the nervous system, which in turn assists the body's immune response.
For centuries, people have made pilgrimages to places of natural wonder to restore the spirit. I travelled to the southern Japanese island of Yakushima, known for its dense Forest of ancient Japanese cedar trees known as ‘Yakusugi’. This primeval temperate rainforest contains some of the oldest living trees in the world, dating back thousands of years and now protected by UNESCO. Following my own interest and connections with forests, I was able to relate closely to Yakushima, slowing down, observing, and studying this complex iconic and fragile ecosystem.

Whilst researching Yakushima and ‘Forest bathing’, I came across Dr Quing Li’s book ‘Shinrin Yoku’ he mentioned the research project by acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton ‘One Square Inch of silence’, designated as the quietest place in the US. The small area in the Hoh rain forest is in the Olympic National Park, Washington State, one of the largest temperate rainforests in the U.S. I journeyed to the Hoh rain forest in search of the elusive ‘one square inch of silence’, a place free of human-made noise.

What is predominant here and the main concerns over these two locations is the effort to preserve them, to protect them from more human activities that might destroy them and how despite all that effort we are searching for solace in these precious places.

The monumental photographs are accompanied by a soundscape that I recorded in both Yakushima and Hoh Rain Forests that includes birds chirping and singing, Macaques’ chatter, Yaku Deers’ calling, rain, wind and babbling streams that takes the viewer wandering the space. The installation is complemented with an earthy scent of petrichor that evokes the smell of the forest floor after it has rained, created in collaboration with Tasha Marks, scent designer.
Translating the sublime power of these ancient forests to the gallery, the installation creates a sense of awe, and reminds us of our reliance on the natural world.

This exhibition offers new commissions that take a deeper look, such as Jasleen Kaur’s playful critique of the wellness industry and Chrystel Lebas’s sublime multisensory tribute to forests and how they affect our health.

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