Forest Waves (Trailer) by Mitch Epstein ( Camera B )
Forest Waves, a new multi-channel video and sound installation by Epstein. The piece takes viewers through four seasons in the Berkshires forests in Massachusetts. Epstein uses careful juxtapositions of visual and sonic rhythms and formal compositions to propel and disorient as we venture deep into the woods of his childhood. Through image and sound, we engage with a complex ecological network that, left to itself, can endure for millennia. How, the work asks, might this vibrant infinitude help us understand the relatively short timeframe of human life? Sound is integral to this piece. Epstein brought tonal musicians Mike Tamburo and Samer Ghadry into these same woods, where he filmed and recorded them improvising in response to the wilderness that surrounds them. Less performance than sonic communion, their music seems to emerge from the forest rather than impose itself upon it. Through its kinetic depiction of flora and fauna, and its mix of instrumental and ambient sound, Forest Waves engulfs the audience, offering a visceral, awe-inducing connection to wilderness.