Bethany de Forest Dutch, b. 1966

Bethany de Forest (1966) graduated from the Utrecht School of the Arts. 

Using existing, ‘found’ materials, Bethany creates mystical places. Inspired by a city, a landscape, a special material or a current event, de Forest creates a model while associating. The result is recognisable yet alienating. She makes photographic and filmic images of these self-built set-ups in her studio. The final artwork is usually a photograph or film.

In a large ‘viewing box’ lined with mirrors, Bethany builds her set. It usually starts with literally regenerating what she has seen, but eventually she lets go of reality and gives it her own interpretation, resulting in absurdist fantasy worlds. Landscapes with bok choy and red cabbage as plants, castles made of sugar cubes and interiors made of English liquorice and candle wax with frogs and butterflies as protagonists. Wondrous worlds, alienating and humorous. Misleading too, objects and materials are not what they appear to be.

She wants people to think that what they see is real/live. That is also her starting point. The impression she has made, she rebuilds to influence it. A beautiful landscape with a dull sky she puts to her will. Not to make it necessarily more beautiful, but more interesting and as a romantic representation of what she has seen.

In Forest’s worlds, plants and animals often take centre stage, as a token catcher in a colourful landscape with an urban edge. This does not necessarily make her work rosy; a threatening undertone is never far away. Current topics such as climate change, industrialisation and urbanisation play an increasing role in her subject matter.

Pinhole camera and digital camera

To share these worlds with the viewer, de Forest long opted for pinhole photography. Photography without a lens where light entering through a very small hole provides the image. This camera was then ‘locked’ inside the mirror box.  Pinhole photography gives enormous depth of field sharpness. Close up objects are rendered as sharp as in the background. Because of the wide angle at which photography is taken, the scenery looks very wide. ‘The constructed world seems life-sized as if you have shrunk yourself. As a viewer, you are no longer a spectator, but are in the middle of it.’

Nowadays, she also works with a digital camera. This allows her to make films using stop-motion and timelapse techniques in addition to photographs. With a wide-angle lens and a small aperture, she also achieves the wide-angle look of her pinhole photos. However, the control over the end result is greater. She can instantly assess what she is doing.  With the pinhole camera, chance plays a big role because you can't see what you are doing and the analogue film has to be developed first to see the result. Seeing the first picture of a new setup remains a magical moment. Her films and photographs all come about without the use of image manipulation. Everything you see is built with basic techniques. The seemingly ‘real’ skies, for example, consist of just cotton wool and blue foils.