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Sculpture trail that's 100ft below the ground

Maisie Lillywhite & Alice Bouverie
BBC News, Gloucestershire
BBC A sculpture made of glass sits inside a cave. It is a red hoop that partly lets light through, with what looks like lines carved into it.BBC
A glass sculpture by Colin Reid glows red in the depths of Clearwell Caves, Gloucestershire

The works of more than 50 sculptors are being featured in a trail 100ft (30m) beneath the ground in caves this summer.

Back to the Cave – The Full Spectrum, opened at Clearwell Caves in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire on 23 May.

Seventy modern and contemporary artworks, including pieces by Damien Hirst and Lynn Chadwick, are dotted along the 1800ft-long (500m) trail.

Ochre paint pigment has been mined from the natural cave system near Coleford for at least 5,000 years – providing inspiration to organisers to use it as a space for art.

A neon art installation, featuring a lit match with a multi-coloured flame, glows in the dark inside a cave.
A neon artwork illuminates the walls of the cave system

As visitors get deeper into the caves, the colours in the exhibition become more vibrant.

Colin Reid from Stroud, a glass artist, created a bright red hoop that glows in the dark.

"I was so chuffed to see it but I'm pleased with the colour and the form in this setting, so that you can look through the piece and the cave goes on behind," he said.

A large tombstone-shaped artwork that has been engraved with modern, angular shapes sits in a cave as part of an art exhibition.
Works by artists from across the globe are showcased in the exhibition in Gloucestershire

Rungwe Kingdon, a co-creator of the exhibition, said putting the art in the caves created "childlike wonder".

"However well-known the art is, it makes it very accessible in the sense that it makes it into an adventure," he said.

A woman with short grey curly hair, who is wearing a mustard coloured yellow scarf and black rimmed glasses, stands in a cave. On a natural ledge behind her are three small, round-ish sculptures, one is pastel blue, another is lilac, and the third is an off-white colour.
Sculptor Patricia Volk said more spaces should be opened up to display art

Patricia Volk, an artist from Bradford-on-Avon, said it was "a joy" for her work to be showcased.

"People are inclined to think of sculpture as just brown bronzes or stone and I think this brings a whole feeling of colour to sculpture itself," she said.

"I think certainly at the moment, when there seems to be a shortage of places to exhibit work... this is something that needs to be done in a lot more different places so people can appreciate it and get in contact with it."

A dark cave which is lit purple, with neon green spots on its ceiling.
Several of the artworks light up craggy spaces in the natural cave system

Clearwell Caves are part of a Natural England-designated Site of Special Scientific Interest and the Wye Valley Special Area of Conservation due to the large number of lesser horseshoe bats.

The caves have been used as a filming location for TV shows including Doctor Who, The Winter King and Merlin.

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