Here reside the last living ferns of Mirchwood; an ancient mythical forest driven to extinction purely by being forgotten. As its stories stopped being told, its trees vanished one by one. Now all that remains is protected in an enchanted terrarium, a living shrine to the primordial wisdom of plant life.
Laura Spark uses hand crafted models and stop motion animation to create this mythic ecosystem, bearing a message of hope and survival from another realm. The Relic acts as both a celebration and a warning – to never take nature’s irreplaceable magic for granted.
The Relic of Mirchwood Forest was commissioned by Light up The North as part of their Shine development programme 2025. With the support of 9 northern based light festivals and a number of other artists, makers and mentors I developed and built this installation designed to withstand winter weather conditions!
For me this was an exciting way to explore presenting stop motion animation and narrative content in unusual contexts. I love that light festivals are attended such such large, diverse crowds and find a lot of the work genuinely exciting. I wanted to bring more hand crafted content and storytelling into a very technical art form, offering audiences a more intimate unusual experience.
The Relic of Mirchwood will be available to book from April 2026. The piece can be situated inside or outside and plays a loop a 2.5 mins loop with original score by Jonathan Hering.