“There are to be seen … near this town … sundry artificial caves or holes in the earth, whereof some have ten, some fifteen and some twenty fathoms in depth”
Sara Trillo’s multimedia work, Going Underground, brings a version of a Kentish dene hole into the Museum of Imagined Kent. Dene holes are chalk pits of mysterious origins, dating back to medieval times. A narrow shaft would be dug, and then chambers would be carved out at the base of the hole to mine the chalk. These days, the holes are often sites where bats settle.
The effect of Going Underground is as if you are looking down from the surface into one of these holes. For her piece, Trillo hand sewed compacted sheep wool to create the holes, and artefacts at the bottom such as bones and nails are ceramic, representing what might be found in the chalk chambers. The rope coming out of the hole represents the rope used to climb down, with the chalk-painted ceramic shape on the end representing the shapes of the bottom of the holes.
Trillo ventured to the bottom of a dene hole for research for the project, and has since been working on a second perspective: looking up from the bottom of the hole. Her other works explore similar themes of the unknown in nature, using natural materials to illustrate this. The exhibition also features Lomea, another work by Trillo.
Going Underground brings an element of mystery into our display on the Kent countryside, in a similar way to the display on Charles Dickens’ Swiss Chalet. There is also a sense of immersion which is also found in the display of taxidermy and fossils, from the work being three-dimensional, and more interactive – giving a sense of being out in nature.
Learn more about Sara Trillo and her work here
Learn more about Kentish dene holes here