BACK TO THE CAVE

Sometimes it feels as though everything in my consciousness has become algorithmic these days. I started Thursday morning listening to a podcast called Good Hang (terrible name), where actress Aubrey Plaza compared her grief after losing her husband to the horror film The Descent, in which six female spelunkers encounter terrifying creatures in deep, dark caves. Regardless of her odd B-movie analogy, it felt strangely fitting to me, because later that morning I visited Clearwell Caves to attend Back to the Cave: The Full Spectrum exhibition (Gallery Pangolin), where I was first greeted by the sight of tiny children’s shoes in the museum section—relics from the days when five-year-olds worked in the mine. That image set my horror imagination tingling with an instant pitch: There Will Be Blood meets Don’t Look Now, set deep in the Forest of Dean, with a mining father who has lost one of his young sons to the tunnels and sees his ghost forevermore in the ochre-dusted underworld.

There is something extraordinary about viewing contemporary artworks in a cave, recalling how it all began with the first drawings in human history. Artists such as Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and Lynn and Dan Chadwick find their works uniquely enhanced by this eerie setting, which creates total immersion for the viewer. The occasional sound of droplets falling from cave seepage sharpens the senses, while the intrigue of winding through labyrinthine tunnels builds a natural tension as you take in more than 70 exhibits before finally emerging into daylight—or at least, if you can find your way out through the exit (which we barely did) without losing your mind. It turned out the stiff, narrow door leading to the gift shop just needed a firmer push.

But for a moment, I could swear I heard the patter of tiny five-year-old feet running toward me.

ARGHHHH!