Part of Hybrid Realities :Lab 2 (Lab → Output)
Virtual installation, Newart.city
Hell Kettle Mere unfolds within a dark, waterlogged environment where landscape, sound and language converge.
Visitors enter a shadowed chamber that feels both enclosed and expansive - part wetland, part cavernous void. Strange roots rise from a glossy black surface that mirrors their branching forms. Glowing trunks, stark silhouettes and suspended objects shape a terrain that appears spectral and temporally suspended.
The environment draws on ecological imagery and the language of oral and literary traditions. Fragments of text and song echo through the space, invoking ancestral voices and collective memory. The work gestures toward landscapes that carry stories across generations, where language and land become intertwined.
The project incorporates contributions from a network of collaborators including musicians, visual artists and members of the artist’s family. Textual excerpts from writers and folklorists appear within the environment, situating the work within broader traditions of storytelling and ecological reflection.
Through this layered structure, Hell Kettle Mere explores how digital environments can function as sites where autobiography, folklore and natural history intersect.
Created with contributions from:
Featuring excerpts from:
David John Scarborough
British–Australian artist, musician and curator based in Charnwood, East Midlands, UK.