Hollow Earth is exhibiting at Nottingham Contemporary which is including 150 art works from more than 50 artists. The exhibition means to show how caves and underneath worlds have been inspired artists. It shows the passion and the connection between artists and the caves. It shows the interpretation of known caves and illusion of unknown caves. It's about fear, protection, exploration, loneliness and imagination.
Space Managing of The Exhibition
The whole exhibition has been separated by five parts, the threshold, the wall, the dark, the city and the deep. Everything has been displayed into four different galleries which I don't like. If everything could be exhibited together in one place that should be more fluent and unbroken. However, this is a touring exhibition, I guess sometimes the curator doesn't have a choice.
Films and Sounding of The Exhibition
While I walking around the whole exhibition, every room has a creepy and ghostly background music. Also, each theme has a fully dark room continuing playing different films about caves, ghostly shadows with some recorded sounds from nature. Especially for the last gallery- the deep. There's a 360 degree rotating laser skull animation in the corner of the wall. That's really attracted my eyes, I stared it for a while.
The lighting, films and sound effects make this exhibition closer to the theme and make the audiences feel like they are in the deep of the cave when they watching the exhibition. At lest that's how it makes me feel.
The way how to display different kinds of arts.
As we know, there are 150 art works for this exhibition which is a large mount. How they made the decision about how to placed them? Which one the ground open space? Which one put on the tables? Which one supposed to lock in a glass showcase?
I guess the curator has two part needs to consider. The material of the art works decide how they should be displayed and how they will be lead the audience to walk through the whole exhibition space.
The curator did a great job to exhibit all the art works. Historical sculpture been kept in a glass showcase to give a well protection. The ceramics are exhibited on the round table so when people walk around they can easily to see the texture. The abstract sculpture pieces more like fossil forms so they they been exhibited on a open space close to the ground which is close the theme.
As a student of fine art, we are not only learning about art, creating art, but also, how to exhibit our art, how to lead the audience to come to see our art and have connections. It's important to always have curiosity eyes about how and why the curators set up an exhibition.
Over all, there are two particular art works that I was captivated with.
Rene Magritte
La condition humaine
1935
Oil on canvas
This is a painting depict a painting within a painting. I always admire the surrealism artist's brain, how they could have some many strange ideas?
I like this painting not because of the drawing skill, but the idea. It likes a mirror in the mirror which drags me into a infinite loop. Who is behind this scene? It's me. The audience who is standing behind the scene, standing inside the cave. And where is the exit? Is the castle further away or the warm corner inside the cave? It's a battle between inside and outside, between conservatism and innovation. I guess we all have our own grasps of this scene, just depends on what cave means to you.
Chioma Ebinama
Sweet Mother and the Hunger Demon
Watercolour, sumi ink, casein, turmeric, coffee and gelatin on handmade paper
"Every culture and religion tells stories about what lies beneath. In myth and scared texts, caves are the domain of gods and monsters, places of birth, burial and rebirth."
Chioma creates this image inspired by 11th century Tibetan Buddhist poet and yogi Milarepa.
As we can see, the mother in this image has three pairs of arms, pair of wing and lots of breasts which are leaking milk. Males been depict as a multipled male bodies with bird heads and wild open beaks. Also she named them hunger demon.
The materials she used are quite interesting, especially the coffee. It gives the image a sense of time, makes me feel like it from thousand years ago. It looks like a real page from a myth book.
I think the artist means to satirize the low status of women. In most of the old myth males as a character who meditating in the cave, why women couldn't? Because women had to feed their children and served their husbands.
I think me and the artist both are questioning that the position of women has been changed now days or not?
What cave means to us?
For artist, cave is a deep and mysterious place which closer to the nature and inspired them. For the first man on the earth, cave was his home. For a witch, cave is the place that she could whispering a
spell on you. Does the cave have to be an actual cave? Could it be somewhere you hide yourself? Could it be somewhere that locked your mind? Could it be somewhere you feel safe? I guess it all depends on what cave means to you!
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