New exhibition reimagining the underground as a sacred space comes to Cardiff

Gosia Buzzanca

A new exhibition, previously showcased at the prestigious Liverpool Biennial, is coming to one of Cardiff’s most innovative art galleries, g39.

Heaven in the Ground is a speculative sound-work and installation that reimagines the underground as a sacred space of regeneration, guided by insects, mycelium, and the Earth’s bedrock made by Wales artists DARCH.

Originally debuting at Liverpool Biennial 2025, it evolves across g39 with newly commissioned works including an exciting new ritual film made with collaborators in the Wennault and accompanying fabric drapings, a series of narrative tiles created by artist Brian Denman as well as bespoke workshops and audio described tours.

DARCH is the collaborative practice of artists Umulkhayr Mohamed and Radha Patel. Their work seeks creative ways to articulate care-centred practices for people of colour, with an approach grounded in solidarity and liberation.

The work celebrates the underground as a site of memory, rebirth, and collective history, fostering a vision of interconnection and honouring pre-colonial relationships to land, our human and more than human ancestors.

It unravels perceptions of heaven and hell, challenging the colonial degeneration associated with the underground which is considered the final layer of hell in both Abrahamic and Dharmic religions.

Instead, DARCH presents the belief that heaven – not hell – is in the ground beneath our feet, and that it is sacred because it holds life and death in a never ending cycle.

Heaven in the Ground – composed of a sound work and a series of soil and ceramic sculptures – explores how humans can fulfill their part in a sacred cycle by providing physical and spiritual regenerative materials in the form of decomposing bodies, souls and memories to the ground that has fed us for our entire lives.

This work also makes visible how bedrock, physically and spiritually, becomes the great connector – it holds the history that all plants, weathers, beings and species share. A prehistoric history, a colonial history and, naturally connected to those histories, it also holds a future that we’re learning to mend together.

The artist believe that telling stories about the ancient and continuing relationships of the underground can influence people to re-imagine a gentler and more compassionate world.

They said: “Heaven in the Ground proudly reflects our diasporic connection to Wales, underscoring its importance as a compassionate and culturally rich land.

“It brings together our Somali, Indian and Welsh cultural heritages, merging folkloric traditions to create new ecological rituals which challenge colonial narratives of death, decay and exploitation of land.

“We are grateful for the support of our funders namely, Arts Council Wales, for the opportunity to not only bring this work home to Wales and Welsh audiences, after being the third ever Welsh artists, and first Black and Asian artists from Wales to show at Liverpool Biennial in all its editions, but to also evolve the work across three Welsh venues premiering bespoke elements and new artworks, bridging the local and global, the ancestral and contemporary, offering a transformative experience for audiences and participants alike.”

The creative director of g39, Anthony Shapland, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Heaven in the Ground by DARCH to g39.

“We’ve worked with Radha and Umulkhayr over a number of years, through projects like our UNITe residency programme and by sharing their individual practices, and it’s been exciting to see this work take shape.

“It feels especially meaningful to bring Heaven in the Ground to south Wales, where the ideas behind it were first formed, and to share it with audiences here.”

Heaven in Ground will be shown in g39, Oxford Street, Cardiff, between 28 March and 23 May.