CARDIFF.- 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 three Welsh venues; g39, Cardiff, Mostyn, Llandudno and Mission Gallery, Swansea in 2026, with additional newly commissioned works for each venue, 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 - is 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. We 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.
The artists 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.’’
Adam Lewis-Smythe, Director, Mostyn, “We loved seeing the work by DARCH in Liverpool and are delighted that our North Wales audiences will be able to experience their exciting and immersive practice this summer and to take part in engagement workshops as part of this. We are also delighted to be connected to our friends at g39 and Mission through this project as it unfolds across the course of the year; using each space to show this brilliant work in a different way.”
G39’s Anthony Shapland, Creative Director 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."
Mission Gallery, Rhian Wyn Stone, Gallery Director, said, "Mission Gallery is pleased to be one of the exhibiting venues for Heaven in the Ground by DARCH, to be shown later this year. When we were first approached by Radha and Umulkhayr, we were taken by the project’s sensitivity and by the conversations it might spark once shared with audiences. We look forward to showcasing it in Swansea."
