Have you ever thought long and hard about caves (steady…)? If so, you’ll love Hollow Earth: Art, Caves and The Subterranean Imaginary, Nottingham Contemporary’s latest exhibition exploring what goes on beneath the ground - and if not, you might be surprised at just how fascinating they are…
Diving into the question, ‘What is a cave?’, Hollow Earth: Art, Caves and The Subterranean Imaginary brings together more than fifty artists to explore the concept throughout 150 pieces of art. From painting, photography, sculpture, sound, installation and video, as well as architectural models, the exhibition promises to take each and every visitor on a path of introspection that you would never think of regarding caves.
At the same time, it leaves an open space for a debate: How important are caves? Were they really the first museums? Through these questions, the concepts of thresholds, darkness and prehistory are explored.
Nottingham is home to over 800 caves beneath its surface, artistically carved into the sandstone bedrock. Different cultures, different religions, different beliefs are enshrined underneath the ground. Some will defend that gods and myths are the ones inhabiting the caves, that it was the house for the first men, that they’re dark and dangerous, or that they tell stories in the walls. But the artworks at the exhibition don’t answer questions; instead, they make you question more, wonder and look for a meaning. It's a trip in the world of art that holds reality and fantasy on a thin line of thought.
One of the enigmas that arises throughout the exhibition is how the human being perceives itself.
Why do we constantly see human faces in the most random and abstract figures? Why do we have the need to encounter what resembles humanity all the time? In the exhibition, in the darkest and most profound artworks, you will find yourself wondering why something as simple as three dots, or a hand-carved wall on a cave, seems so familiar. It is a space for theories and self-development, because you will either imagine it to your own eye or you will indeed see human faces where you normally wouldn’t.
The dark is what always haunts us, because it’s the unknown and what we can’t understand, but here you can simply contemplate it
The first gallery, The Threshold, is the one that can be considered the most evasive, leading the exhibition on a portal into the void. It is raw - from its materials to the film presented with a background music that can both creep you out and engage you, there is an odd mixture that has a deeper meaning to it.
Gallery two, which is divided into two parts, starts with The Wall. Focusing on the first creations in a cave, the wall and ceiling paintings portray a world and tell a story that we will never be able to fully decipher, and are left to one's interpretation. Cave art is a reality of the world, marking presence in each continent apart from Antartica. This gallery alone will take you to Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Guyana and Spain.
Continuing through gallery two, you come across The Dark; the name leaves nothing to wonder about, it is as the name says, dark. Do not freak out, though. Darkness can indeed be terrifying and cold, but there’s space for an enjoyable silence. It brings together objects, artworks and music that will guide you to catacombs and solitary rituals to abandoned bodies left to be; the forgotten ones. The dark is what always haunts us, because it’s the unknown and what we can’t understand, but here you can simply contemplate it.
Those who dare to travel down into the darkness can follow to the third part of the exhibition, The City. Bringing us back to the light, the city interrogates architectural elements, the rational side of what today’s society considers caves as a place of shelter and survival. In there, you will learn and understand how the world is created, from doomsday bunkers to vaults and data farms. There is no space for illusion as the city highlights all the qualities of home, making caves a safe space for creation and development that will eventually bring us to today.
In the darkest and most profound artworks, you will find yourself wondering why something as simple as three dots, or a hand-carved wall on a cave, seems so familiar
Gallery four presents The Deep, a mutation of brightness and darkness; bringing you to the realisation that the further we go, the less we know. That is a learning experience that belongs deep down in the caves but brings the unburied to life. Through a hologram on a big white wall, there are sculptures, books, mapping; a reflection on myth, ceremony and deep time.
As the exhibition comes to a close - collecting storytellers and communities of explorers together - you ask yourself, has the exhibition even started? Hollow Earth is the kind of artwork that will investigate a specific object in such depth that you will find different meanings and reasons for its existence. Alongside the artists, members of the public will interpret and be allowed into a spiral of emotions and thoughts after each step through the galleries. No piece is the same, no emotion will be felt the same, and our advice is to let yourself be open to interpretation, go with an open mind to decipher what the meaning of a cave is to you.
Allow yourself to explore and be pushed into the world and realities of the artists that share their views and beliefs, where deep past and troubled futures invade the space and invite the curious ones to take a step into the unknown.
The exhibition will take place at Nottingham Contemporary until Sunday 22 January 2023
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