Never Mind The Aurochs!

Nature reclaims the Museum of Making with the launch of latest exhibition, ‘EarthBound’, featuring the work of 14 artists

Derby Museums invites visitors to explore the hidden worlds of bedrock and earth to the human story on the surface through EarthBound a stunning and spectacular exhibition of sculpture, portrait photography and tiny but powerful creatures blown up to a huge scale, launching at the Museum of Making on June 22^nd 2025.

Photographers Kate Bellis and Alex Hyde, alongside sculptor Sally Matthews, gave the initial igniting energy to EarthBound, which explores the human connection to the natural landscape and the world around us, with a particular focus on the landscapes of Derbyshire.

The sculptures by Sally Matthews prowl the gallery space – extinct animals vividly brought back to life, sculpted from compost, grass, feathers and grasses found in the areas where these beasts once roamed. Her giant aurochs sculpture can be found on Level 1 of the Museum of Making. An early wild ancestor of today’s domestic cattle, the aurochs seems so familiar to us, and yet, with its giant horns and height of almost 2 metres, so strange. It is a spectacular sight to see, and the aurochs’ presence at the Museum of Making – on the site of what is widely regarded to be the world’s first factory – is a reminder of the conflict between the worlds of nature and mass industry. The connection deepens as Aurochs bones were discovered by the quarry workers in the caves of Derbyshire which further demonstrates the interspecies relationship. These bones are now part of the Derby museum’s collection.

Featured in the exhibition is a selection of micrographs by award-winning natural history photographer Alex Hyde. Entomology photography includes subjects such as green tiger beetles and tardigrade, which are tiny invertebrates found in almost every environment on the planet, from deep seas to mountain tops and even the vacuum of space. Alex’s works seeks to save the most vulnerable insect species from extinction in the UK by broadening the general public’s knowledge of them.

Alex says: “It’s hard to care about species if you don’t know what they look like. Giving a profile to many of these tiny and lesser-known organisms really matters for their long-term survival.”

Kate Bellis, the architect of the EarthBound project, is a photographer whose cyanotype processes involve using materials from the land. Her portraits of Derbyshire people, such as 13-year-old Aldwark resident Fran, are treated and toned with natural materials. Fran’s portrait includes the Longcliffe Quarry dust under her feet when her portrait was taken and the botanicals from the surrounding landscape.

E J Lance’s distinctive ink, paint and paper cut sculptural drawings are inspired by the portrait photography of Kate Bellis, the entomology photography of Alex Hyde and bones from cave finds. Weaving in and out of these reference points are elements of both the ancient and current landscape, of what lies beneath our feet and our connection to that as humans. Keep looking and you will find more and more glimpses of these connections.

The aim of EarthBound is to take a pause, and think that our future survival may well depend on us having a deeper understanding and respect for the incredible life, micro-organisms and fungal networks that hold our planet in balance. The exhibition achieves this by reconnecting visitors with the wildness of the landscape, in the most visually spectacular of ways.

Artists included in the show are: Kate Bellis, Sally Matthews, Alex Hyde, Bernie Rutter, Liane Lang, EJ Lance, Melanie King, The Silver Field, Feral Practice, Angel Wylie, Maggie Cullen, Tim Dowdell, Kate Learmouth and Mark Elmore.

EarthBound project supported by: Canon, the Institute of Quarrying, RJ Print Lab, Arts Council England, Longcliffe Quarries Ltd., Natural History Museum, University of Derby and Wildlife Worldwide.

Kate Bellis, Architect of the EarthBound project, shares why she believes the exhibition is so important:

“EarthBound hopes to make us think a little more about the hidden story written in our rocks and the earth under our feet, the life there now and in the layered history of rock and earth, above and below, how we are all connected to this continuing story.”

Janine Derbyshire, Head of Exhibitions and Events at Derby Museums, said:

“It’s important for us as a civic museum to examine the climate emergency and reconnect to nature, and what better way to do it than through the creative vision of such important artists working in a variety of media to show the strength and fragility of the world around us.”

EarthBound: The Story of Connected Life through Rock, Earth and Community, opens at the Museum of Making in Derby on 22 June. To find out more, visit derbymuseums.org/event/earthbound/