Mars installation brings another world to Chichester Cathedral

On display until November 10 in the nave, Luke’s immersive artwork measures seven metres in diameter and features detailed NASA imagery of the Martian surface. And it ties in perfectly with the cathedral’s commemorations marking the 150th anniversary year of Gustav Holst, composer of The Planets. Holst’s remains are interred within the north transept.

First Luke did the moon. Then he did the earth: “And the opportunity came up to make Mars with the UK Space Agency who wanted to celebrate the work that the UK space industry was doing to help with the Mars missions. I just thought it would be interesting to do.

“We have been staring at the moon for 200,000 years and it has inspired so many stories around the world. There is all the culture associated with the moon. It has always been there. But with Mars, it is different. The Romans described it as the pink one. It is recognised as a planet but was a smaller flickery star and doesn't have quite the same cultural associations. You think of aliens and you of a sci-fi but it also feels like almost a new territory for mankind. It's only in recent years that rovers been up there, and actually there are still people that feel that there might be some microbial life up there. There is water on the surface so perhaps there is that possibility but there is definitely an element of mystery about Mars. It has got the solar system's largest mountain which is 23 kilometres tall and it's got huge valleys and huge deserts and it used to be covered in water. It used to have massive seas but through climate change all the water has evaporated. I think all the planets go through times of stability and times of change, but now you realise how barren and desert-like it is compared to the earth. You look back at the earth and you realise how lucky we are to have such abundance here.”

For the installation Luke created a brief for a composer friend of his to create some music that could be played alongside the artwork and which connects with the art: “And then in Chichester of course you have got the context of Holst which is a nice coincidence.

“I did Mars before the pandemic and it has travelled around. It has been to America to Houston and to Germany and to France and it's been to Romania and around the UK and Belgium and Amsterdam and they even took it to India last year and there are often events that take place beneath the artwork. It's great when people can enjoy events there as well.

“There is an information panel where people can read about the scale of it but to a certain degree Mars reflects what people bring to it. I've had geologists that have come along that have been very excited!”

But equally you don't need to know the science to enjoy it, Luke says.