1525 X HOLLOW EARTH

Gallery Echoes

By Lachlan

TWO STUDENTS WANDERING IN THE GALLERY

Student 1

I like how these artworks just draw you in as you enter.

Student 2

Yeah, I can’t stop staring at this painting (Rene Margarite’s La Condition Humane).

Student 1

There’s something mysterious with caves when you look from the outside.

Student 2

They’re like a rabbit holes.

STUDENT 2 looks into the ceramic vase on table, like viewing a telescope.

Student 1

You just wanna dive into every thing.

[Sounds of echoing shouting out from “echos from the cave” video room]

BOTH STUDENTS briefly froze then run into the video room.

Frames

By Leonor

Frames within frames, windows to different realities, people walking in and out, if you close your eyes, you go back inside.

We keep on changing places-

-outside, inside, outside, inside, inside, inside, outside.

Again and again, until we die.

Until all there’s left of us is our hollow body.

Just another frame.

Take this text with you, and look through the frames, to different existences.

The Photography and Subterranean Imaginary of "Hollow Earth"

By Jade

As a recent Photography graduate, I was pulled in by the wide range of photographic art on show in Nottingham Contemporary’s latest exhibition “Hollow Earth: Art, Caves & The Subterranean Imaginary”.

Much like the “Our Silver City, 2094” Exhibition of last year, the Contemporary continues its exploration of melding fact and fiction by mixing the two as you walk through the space. The galleries are filled with artefacts and documents from historical archives, libraries and research institutions. As the viewer goes deeper and deeper into the “Subterranean Imaginary” as referenced in the exhibition’s title, the historical context helps immerse them in the experience by couching it in reality.

To this end, this exhibition employs one of the great traditional functions of photography; to document. This begins in Gallery 1 “The Threshold” where we find one of the first uses of photography in the exhibition. Documentary photographer Santu Mofokeng’s Chasing Shadows series shows us an environment in the caves of central South Africa where locals practise their spirituality stemming from animist religions, but also including pagan and christian rituals in order to heal and find salvation. The stunning series shows us the Motouleng cave, particularly the large sandstone overhang, adorned with carvings, candles and animal carcasses as well as showing all the different communities gathering to pray, gather and worship. The black and white Giclée print compliments the content beautifully, particularly the photos containing lit candles have a truly glowing quality to them. The photos are high contrast which helps us understand the depths of the environment as well as juxtaposing the black and grey cave walls to the much brighter almost white objects and clothing featured by the locals.

Opposite this work in the same gallery stands Barry Flanagan’s Hole in the Sea Triptych. This series uses photo etchings to display the photography. Speculating on the process, these kinds of etchings are typically made by creating a lithograph of the original image by printing it onto stone or metal and then treating it with acid and gum arabic in order to etch the image into the surface. This etching can then be used to reproduce the photo using various methods such as ink printing. The photos are lifted from a film produced for a TV exhibition and show a plastic drum buried in sand as the sea crashes over it. The triptych shows the black hole created by the drum becoming smaller and smaller as the tide comes in. Centred in the middle of the composition the hole is pitch black and is being completely engulfed by the foamy white waves around it. It feels as though nature is consuming and burying this little cave of nothingness, not disappearing entirely, but hiding it beneath the earth's surface. How many of these pitch tunnels of nothing do we walk over everyday? How much history is encapsulated in these spaces? These questions lead us further into the “Subterranean Imaginary”.

1525 Collective

1525 Collective are a group of young people who meet weekly at Nottingham Contemporary, working on creative projects exploring topics that are relevant to young people.

Keep up to date on their projects through Instagram @1525collective.