Every culture has a take on what lies beneath.

Now Cork audiences are invited to descend into the depths to explore questions of prehistory and myth, ritual, and the future at The Glucksman, where their latest exhibition, Hollow Earth: Art, Caves, and The Subterranean Imaginary is now open.

A major thematic exhibition that brings together a wide range of responses to the image and idea of the cave, the show includes painting, photography, sculpture, sound, installation, and video.

The featured archives and architectural models stretch from 1960 to today, alongside works from the 18th and 19th centuries.

“Dark, dangerous, and unstable, caves are places of visions, of experiences that are sacred as well as profane.” the curators explain.

“More recently, they have become home to data farms, seed vaults and doomsday bunkers. For millennia, the image and idea of the cave have exerted an enduring pull on artists. It has even been argued that the cave was the earliest studio and the first museum.

“Following the 19th-century discoveries of rock paintings, caves became imagined as spaces of revelation and fantasy, providing clues to our collective impulse to produce images. After World War II, artists came to associate the cave with the primordial creative space, with a bunker-like refuge from the atomic era, and even with the dream of a truly underground cinema.

“Mapping both specific sites and imaginary underworlds, Hollow Earth considers why and how so many artists, musicians and filmmakers have been drawn below.”

Hollow Earth runs at The Glucksman Gallery from now until July 9th, open from 10am – 5pm Monday to Saturday and Sunday 2pm – 5pm. Entry is free (suggested donation €5).