If you've ever wondered what it's like to be a mole or any other animal that lives most of its life underground, now is your chance to find out.

Just ask one woman who has spent the past few months burrowing beneath the New Forest digging tunnels and creating a labyrinth of channels that would make a rabbit green with envy.

Artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva says she has long been curious about life below the trees and the grass, and now she's found out, what does she think?

"It's very moist, quite dark and smelly. And very claustrophobic," she reveals.

Called Ambush, this latest work by Elpida has been created with the aim of giving people the opportunity to view nature from different perspective.

"The whole idea is to experience another space, one that's under the ground. So that people can walk underneath and view the trees from a different angle and see the roots," explains Elpida.

Conservationists need not panic. The tunnels will not damage the forest.

"Only part of the roots are being exposed and I have been working closely with the Forestry Commission which has hosted the whole project," she says.

The two entrances and two channels, connected via a passage, have been dug with the help of engineering company Price & Myers. In addition, surveyors have been hired and an arboriculturist consulted to examine the trees before work commenced.

"The whole area where I am working is undergoing renovation," explains Elpida.

"A lot of it will change as part of a ten-year programme by the Forestry Commission. Some of the trees will come down anyway - they are Western Hemlocks which are not suitable for the area and so there are plans to replant them with different species.

"It is a traditional Victorian forest which should have Douglas firs, not the Hemlocks which were planted there temporarily. The plan is to restore this part of the forest back to how it used to be."

Meanwhile, there is a unique opportunity to witness the usually concealed systems and structures which exist below the surface of the forest and to gain first-hand experience of life as a badger, a mole or a rabbit.

The title of the installation, Ambush, means surprise and that's just the reaction Elpida hopes to get from people who come to see it.

Ambush is hosted by ArtSway and the Forestry Commission and is part of a project called Year of the Artist which is the largest and most ambitious art project ever mounted in England. It is just one of a hundred installations taking place across the region and is co-ordinated by Southern Arts.

The Ambush site is signposted from the Blackwater car park in The Ornamental Drive of the New Forest, between Brockenhurst and the A35 (Lyndhurst-Christchurch).

For more information contact ArtSway on 01590 682260.