DARCH: Heaven in the Ground | Reading List

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.

To coincide with the exhibition Heaven in the Ground at Mostyn DARCH have complied a reading list of books which share similar themes and ideas to their own practice.  

Heaven in the Ground is a soundwork and installation which tells the story of the earth underneath our feet, and the bedrock as a great connector which holds all histories (prehistoric, colonial, personal) as well as possible futures. The work explores concepts of the afterlife, the relationship between life and death, and the need to acknowledge the labour of other species. DARCH ask us to consider the soil, and the bedrock that holds it up, as a space that is shared equally amongst all species – plants, animals and our ancestors, both human and more-than-human – and one through which we can collectively bring into being a gentler and more compassionate world.

Heaven in the Ground was originally co-commissioned for Liverpool Biennial 2025, BEDROCK, by At The Library/Rule of Threes Arts and Liverpool Biennial, with generous support from FACT Liverpool.