Andy Munns
Sarum Lights is back on at the Cathedral again this week, with another spectacular light and sound show which explores art and social change.
This year‘s show, Sarum Lights: Illuminating Art, takes visitors on a stunning journey from Baroque Art and the Protestant-Catholic conflicts of the 16th century through to Art Deco and early 20th-century industrialisation and photography.
Displays in the Cloisters, Trinity Chapel and North Nave Aisle reflect on four centuries of ‘new’ ideas, starting with the concept of moral philosophy, natural science and the first English dictionary, and moving on to the American War of Independence, abolition of slavery and women’s emancipation. As we reach the 19th century, Brunel and the age of steam rub shoulders with early photography and Zoetrope (an early animation device).
In the North Transept, an interactive display, Starry, Starry Night (part of an installation devoted to impressionism and post-impressionism) invites visitors to write and share their thoughts on star-shaped cards, a reference to Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, painted a year before his death when he was in Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy.
The finale in the Nave showcases the Pre-Raphaelites (Burne-Jones, Millais, Rossetti and Holman Hunt) and the Impressionists (Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Manet and Renoir) – all titans of their generation seen in a new light.
Artistic Director for Luxmuralis, Peter Walker, told Salisbury Radio how the show is put together, “It’s a bit like painting a picture; you start with a blank canvas. Then, you start to build up the layers. Start with the background and build up to the highlights.
“The big paintings and ones that people know are the last parts that we’re looking at. It’s probably the important pieces of artwork in this one are the ones that people don’t know.”
Tickets are still available via the Salisbury Cathedral website – https://www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/sarum-lights/
