The Sun and The Moon at Saatchi Gallery: last days to see it
Some exhibitions are worth seeing for a single object, and Saatchi Gallery's summer show has one of the year's best: a six-metre glowing Sun suspended in a darkened room. The Sun and The Moon: Art Inspired by the Celestial opened on 5 June and closes on Tuesday 8 September, so this weekend is the last good chance to catch it.
A day in nine rooms
The exhibition spreads across two floors and nine gallery spaces, arranged as a journey through a full 24 hours, from dawn to the depths of night. It explores how the Sun and Moon have shaped art, science, myth, ritual, fashion and spirituality, and it mixes historical artefacts with contemporary work throughout.
- Dawn: the Sun and Moon as deities, forces and omens, with Annelie Solis's Signorum and Lian Zhang's dreamlike paintings of golden celestial faces hovering over dragons and deer.
- The Sun Rising: time, rhythm and ritual, and the way the Sun has long governed agriculture, seasons and celebration.
- Zenith: the high heat of the day, with sunlight on skin, summer rituals, fans and eyewear, and Yinka Ilori's joyful Sun and Water Can Live Together in hot pink, orange and yellow over rippling blues.
- Setting Sun: transformation, alchemy and astrology, including Catherine Nickford's dense, occult The Solar Lunar Accord.
The centrepiece
At the heart of the show is Helios, Luke Jerram's six-metre sculpture of the Sun. Internally lit and made using detailed imagery from NASA observations, its surface is alive with sunspots and filaments. As Sloane Street's review puts it, the Sun, usually too bright to look at directly, is brought indoors and made available for contemplation. It is both scientific and gloriously theatrical.
Into the night
The second half turns to the Moon. Saad Qureshi's large split moon hangs from the ceiling, and Walking on the Moon features Margo Selby's Moon Landing, a vivid textile installation made with composer Helen Caddick, in which weaving, mathematics, rhythm and colour are treated as languages that can speak to one another. By Midnight the mood turns to dreams and folklore, with works by Paula Rego, Joan Miró, Joseph Wright of Derby and Marguerite Carnec. The journey ends in Darkest Hours with teamLab's immersive Massless Suns and Dark Suns, a fittingly spellbinding finale.
The show is the second in a series at the gallery, following Flowers: Flora in Contemporary Art and Culture.
Visiting
Saatchi Gallery is on Duke of York Square, just off the King's Road and a couple of minutes from Sloane Square station, which makes it an easy add-on to an afternoon on Sloane Street. Tickets start at £13, with concessions and family tickets available. Allow at least an hour, and longer if you want to sit with Helios. If you can, go on Monday or Tuesday morning rather than the final weekend, when the last-minute crowds will be at their thickest. For more ideas nearby, see our guide to things to do around Knightsbridge.
Lead image: Markyboy81 via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
