Leela Thornfield / Project Manager @ Luke Jerram Artwork
The huge installation will be exhibited in the Painted Hall until the end of January.
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The touring planet, which looks to inspire climate-centred conversation, has arrived at the home of time and space: Greenwich.
Seven metres in diameter, Mars rotates against the historic backdrop of the Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College. Luke Jerram’s artwork follows his sell-out Gaia and Museum of the Moon exhibitions.
The exact-to-scale, internally lit Red Planet accompanies a soundscape by BAFTA winning composer Dan Jones, which contains recordings from NASA’s Mars missions.
The Venue
Mars feels at home in the Painted Hall, a room covered by historic paintings with celestial themes.
Kate Miners, Director of Public Engagement & Commercial at the ORNC, tells City News that there are many links between the venue and the artwork, including the Roman god of war himself, depicted in armour on the ceiling of the hall.
“Galileo Galilei, the first to observe Mars through a telescope in 1610, also appears, celebrating human curiosity and scientific advancement.”
Miners hopes these connections will invite reflection on humanity’s achievements in exploration and discovery.
“Greenwich has a deep connection to space exploration, with the Royal Observatory playing a vital role in early advancements in astronomy and timekeeping laying the groundwork for our understanding of space.”
Kate Miners, Director of Public Engagement & Commercial, ORNC
Sir James Thornhill’s Baroque depictions surround the suspended planet.
No ‘Planet B’: Mars as climate-positive art
The installation is also designed to encourage conversation about the climate crisis. As Elon Musk’s lofty ambitions to colonise Mars continue to spark intense debate online, Jerram hopes his work will refocus our efforts back down to earth.
With no ozone layer or magnetic field, the desert-wide surface of Mars is blitzed by radiation damaging to life. Seeking to illuminate these inhospitable conditions, Jerram uses detailed NASA imagery.
“Halfway through the Earth’s sixth mass extinction, we urgently need to wake up, and change our behaviour. We need to quickly make the changes necessary, to prevent runaway Climate Change. There really is no Planet B! I’m hoping for the public to see how inhospitable Mars is and get an appreciation of what we have.”
Luke Jerram, British installation artist – FAQ
Jerram’s work draws on the synergy between art and the climate movement.
In conversation with City News, Art Historian Dr Samuel Shaw explains how climate-positive art can be a valuable means of engagement, and as powerful a spur to action as scientific data.
“What is needed at the moment, arguably, is not more information about the climate crisis, but imaginative and collaborative ways of responding to, adapting, and visualizing the information we do have. This is where art and visual culture have a clear role to play.”
Shaw believes artists like Luke Jerram, alongside contemporaries such as Olafur Eliasson, are able to ask big questions about the climate through ‘carefully crafted sensory spectacles’.
“I saw his [Jerram’s] Gaia a few years ago and it was certainly spectacular. I imagine Mars to be the same. How often do you get this close to a large-scale model of the planet Mars?
“Having this sort of work on view around the time of COP29 allows audiences to make connections between what’s going on in, say, a museum and what’s going on in the political arena.”
However, Shaw emphasises that such works of art don’t exist outside of the systems they challenge.
“Mars is a large-scale multimedia installation, with a sizeable carbon footprint of its own.”
Dr Samuel Shaw, Lecturer in Art History, Open University
“Jerram’s work draws on data from the space industry, which has enabled humans to put the planet Earth in a new kind of perspective, while eating up huge amounts of funds that could have gone to solve terrestrial problems. Is the space industry sustainable? Hardly.”
A Programme of Wellbeing
Mars also acts as a venue, with hosts given creative license in how they choose to curate the exhibition. The ORNC is planning a series of ‘wellbeing events’ to take place in the Painted Hall below the installation. These include sound baths and yoga.
Musician Christina McMaster will lead sound healing sessions in the Painted Hall.
This use of the space may seem frivolous, but Shaw believes that the ORNC’s focus on wellbeing reframes the exhibition in a crucial way.
“Jerram’s comments on Mars suggest that he’s hoping that his audience’s understanding of Mars’s ‘inhospitable atmosphere’ may scare them into action. This may be the case, but sometimes these kind of sublime, semi-apocalyptic visions frighten people into inaction. When you frame the question in such an elemental way, as Jerram often does, it can all feel too much, which often leads to what we call ‘eco-anxiety’.
“It makes sense to bring well-being into the conversation, as feeling connected and positive and protective about the planet we live on will surely help us in the long run.”
Dr Samuel Shaw, Lecturer in Art History, Open University
Mars will be exhibited in the Painted Hall until 20 January.
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Standfirst
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HeadlineGiant Mars installation comes to Greenwich’s Painted Hall
Short HeadlineGiant Mars installation comes to Greenwich
StandfirstLuke Jerram's work reminds visitors that there's no 'Planet B'.
The touring planet, which looks to inspire climate-centred conversation, has arrived at the home of time and space: Greenwich.
Seven metres in diameter, Mars rotates against the historic backdrop of the Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College. Luke Jerram’s artwork follows his sell-out Gaia and Museum of the Moon exhibitions.
The exact-to-scale, internally lit Red Planet accompanies a soundscape by BAFTA winning composer Dan Jones, which contains recordings from NASA’s Mars missions.
The Venue
Mars feels at home in the Painted Hall, a room covered by historic paintings with celestial themes.
Kate Miners, Director of Public Engagement & Commercial at the ORNC, tells City News that there are many links between the venue and the artwork, including the Roman god of war himself, depicted in armour on the ceiling of the hall.
“Galileo Galilei, the first to observe Mars through a telescope in 1610, also appears, celebrating human curiosity and scientific advancement.”
Miners hopes these connections will invite reflection on humanity’s achievements in exploration and discovery.
“Greenwich has a deep connection to space exploration, with the Royal Observatory playing a vital role in early advancements in astronomy and timekeeping laying the groundwork for our understanding of space.”
Kate Miners, Director of Public Engagement & Commercial, ORNC
Sir James Thornhill’s Baroque depictions surround the suspended planet.
No ‘Planet B’: Mars as climate-positive art
The installation is also designed to encourage conversation about the climate crisis. As Elon Musk’s lofty ambitions to colonise Mars continue to spark intense debate online, Jerram hopes his work will refocus our efforts back down to earth.
With no ozone layer or magnetic field, the desert-wide surface of Mars is blitzed by radiation damaging to life. Seeking to illuminate these inhospitable conditions, Jerram uses detailed NASA imagery.
“Halfway through the Earth’s sixth mass extinction, we urgently need to wake up, and change our behaviour. We need to quickly make the changes necessary, to prevent runaway Climate Change. There really is no Planet B! I’m hoping for the public to see how inhospitable Mars is and get an appreciation of what we have.”
Luke Jerram, British installation artist – FAQ
Jerram’s work draws on the synergy between art and the climate movement.
In conversation with City News, Art Historian Dr Samuel Shaw explains how climate-positive art can be a valuable means of engagement, and as powerful a spur to action as scientific data.
“What is needed at the moment, arguably, is not more information about the climate crisis, but imaginative and collaborative ways of responding to, adapting, and visualizing the information we do have. This is where art and visual culture have a clear role to play.”
Shaw believes artists like Luke Jerram, alongside contemporaries such as Olafur Eliasson, are able to ask big questions about the climate through ‘carefully crafted sensory spectacles’.
“I saw his [Jerram’s] Gaia a few years ago and it was certainly spectacular. I imagine Mars to be the same. How often do you get this close to a large-scale model of the planet Mars?
“Having this sort of work on view around the time of COP29 allows audiences to make connections between what’s going on in, say, a museum and what’s going on in the political arena.”
However, Shaw emphasises that such works of art don’t exist outside of the systems they challenge.
“Mars is a large-scale multimedia installation, with a sizeable carbon footprint of its own.”
Dr Samuel Shaw, Lecturer in Art History, Open University
“Jerram’s work draws on data from the space industry, which has enabled humans to put the planet Earth in a new kind of perspective, while eating up huge amounts of funds that could have gone to solve terrestrial problems. Is the space industry sustainable? Hardly.”
A Programme of Wellbeing
Mars also acts as a venue, with hosts given creative license in how they choose to curate the exhibition. The ORNC is planning a series of ‘wellbeing events’ to take place in the Painted Hall below the installation. These include sound baths and yoga.
Musician Christina McMaster will lead sound healing sessions in the Painted Hall.
This use of the space may seem frivolous, but Shaw believes that the ORNC’s focus on wellbeing reframes the exhibition in a crucial way.
“Jerram’s comments on Mars suggest that he’s hoping that his audience’s understanding of Mars’s ‘inhospitable atmosphere’ may scare them into action. This may be the case, but sometimes these kind of sublime, semi-apocalyptic visions frighten people into inaction. When you frame the question in such an elemental way, as Jerram often does, it can all feel too much, which often leads to what we call ‘eco-anxiety’.
“It makes sense to bring well-being into the conversation, as feeling connected and positive and protective about the planet we live on will surely help us in the long run.”
Dr Samuel Shaw, Lecturer in Art History, Open University
Mars will be exhibited in the Painted Hall until 20 January.
