The Gallery
We
specialise in art that is based on the underground world
and its immediate above ground environment; the black
spaces beneath the earth which hold both beauty and wildness.
The gallery is run by a caver who has been caving for
over 40 forty years. Ian Ellis Chandler has visited caves
in the USA, Norway, Slovakia, France, Spain, Greece, United
Kingdom, Ireland and India. He has been the first human
into undiscovered areas beneath the earth in a number
of countries as a member of international expeditions.
He still goes into the unknown, now with a sketch book,
note book and often a digital sound recorder to capture
the sights and sounds of the cave.
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Speleology.
Speleology is a sport, an exploration into unknown cavities
below the earth, a science and is now becoming to be expressed
in art. People go underground to exercise their physical
and mental abilities in a testing and wild environment.
Here it is also possible to explore and find totally new
spaces; where else in the world can you go where no other
has seen or been before? The use of such techniques as
a single rope to descend into shafts and prussic back
up makes difficult caves more accessible. Modern clothing
and lighting make the journeys comfortable. Cave diving
allows the expert to penetrate through siphons into the
furthest reaches of a cave system, following the track
of the water.
The science of caves, how they were formed, how they develop,
what lives and does not live their, where the water goes,
is an academic study highly relevant to understanding
how the world works. Some caves are associated with human
habitation, places were rituals were enacted, where the
dead were interred with respectful rights. Cavers have
found rich archaeological material discovered by digging
or making a new way into the cave where the original entrance
has been blocked.
It is in caves where the most number and earliest of artistic
images dating from 35,000 years have been found. It maybe
said that it is in caves where mankind has realised its
conscience and emotions and left the first pictorial and
abstract symbols of communication.
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The art of
caves
Humans have used caves to paint pictures and make engravings
on the walls and ceilings as some form of ritual associated
with customs and beliefs from around 30,000 years ago.
Caves such as Altamira in Cantabria, Spain and Lascaux
in France, world heritage sites, have a wealth of images.
Animals, abstract patterns, possible human forms adorn
the walls. Other caves in Europe also have rich and fine
examples of art. In fairly recent times people in southern
Africa and Australian Aborigines show hunting scenes and
ritual patterns on the walls of rock shelters. There are
similar examples in the Americas.
Cave art is certainly not new, but our artists today do
not paint on the walls. They go into caves, well known
or totally unexplored, with sketch books or perhaps some
basic colours and take the underground environment as
their subject. Speleologists exploring the caves may feature,
or it may be a study in the rock formations, or it may
highlight the stalactites and stalagmites; the resulting
work of art might be a pencil sketch, an oil painting
or a watercolour. Acrylic paint or pastel will also be
used. Styles will vary greatly, from abstract to figurative
to moody scenes. Sculpture in wood, metals, clays and
ceramics are produced. Stained glass can allow light to
illuminate the picture.
Artists are working in all mediums. Artists are going
underground in many countries. Some people started as
cavers and then turned to art to get more from their trips
in to the darkness. Some people were trained as artist
and have gone into the caves to find another expression
for their work. Some artist are working full time at their
art, others use it as a leisure activity but do want to
show their work to a wider audience.
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Exhibitions.
The number of exhibitions showing primarily art produced
on the subject of caves, caving, cave diving are increasing
year by year. It is quite usual now for national caving
associations to have an Art Salon at their annual congresses.
In the UK public art galleries and museums, such as at
Buxton in Derbyshire, Wells in Somerset, Dudley in the
West Midlands, St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, Wales have and
are putting on special exhibitions with artist from around
the world showing their work. Work is sold from these
venues.
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Poetry.
There are cavers who are poets and write about the underground
experience. Often an artist will also write poetry.
Underground journeys
of hard stark effort transform
into real pictures.
Conservation.
One important principle that all underground artists subscribe
to is the preservation of those remote, wild, beautiful,
amazing places. Indeed through their works of art they are
trying to preserve the nature, the sense of wonder and fragility
or, of its difficulty of access of the place visited. They
leave the place as they found it but carry its essence into
their art work.
Take
nothing but scenes,
Leave nothing but feint footprints.
Play only with light.
Draw from sensational views
profiles of colour.
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