An unusually deep elevator experience is coming to the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in North West England. From the mind of artist Di Mainstone comes Subterranean Elevator, an interactive art installation opening at Birkenhead’s Williamson Art Gallery & Museum that aims to deepen visitor’s understanding of the earth’s loss of biodiversity due to continued climate emergency. The museum invites visitors to step into a “hypnotic audiovisual experience,” developed by Mainstone and a team of inter-disciplinary specialists, in which they can explore the connected inner worlds of soil and the subconscious mind.
Upon entering the dark, elevator-shaped installation, visitors will find a cozy space to stand, sit or lounge on a bed of soft material similar to the feeling of fresh soil. Mainstone describes the hypnotic journey of the elevator’s “descent” as “Subnosis,” an experience in which “surreal subterranean creatures flourish amongst fleeting thoughts, tickled by roots and intersected by neural pathways that lead us into an interior universe”. Filled with soothing sounds and mesmerizing projected visuals, the artistic elevator creates the feeling of sinking into the earth’s layers. “With a smattering of Folk Horror mixed with audiovisual mesmerism, the experience of drifting past horizons of the soil invites us to delve our hands into the depths and reconnect with Mother Earth.”
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