UoG graduate Luke Jerram is giving visitors an opportunity to explore surface of Mars
Internationally acclaimed artist and University of Gloucestershire graduate Luke Jerram is launching a spectacular art installation within the sacred walls of Gloucester Cathedral.
Measuring seven metres in diameter, Mars: War and Peace features state-of-the-art NASA imagery of the Martian surface, with each centimetre of the internally lit spherical sculpture representing 10 kilometres of the surface of Mars.
Luke’s extraordinary art installation – his third to be hosted by the Cathedral after Museum of the Moon and Gaia – provides visitors with an opportunity to study the Martian surface in perfect detail from the air, including every valley, crater, volcano and mountain on the Red Planet.
Luke received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University in 2022 for his significant international career in the field of public artwork. He studied Art Foundation at the Cheltenham College of Art, one of the predecessors of the University, which inspired his highly successful career.
![Mars: War and Peace being displayed inside at Exeter Cathedral amid red lighting](https://cmsr-web-assets.glos.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/129/2024/10/10130307/Photo-%C2%A9-Amy-Haynes-Exeter-Cathedral-1024x777.png)
Luke’s Mars: War and Peace is being displayed in the Cathedral Nave from October 15 to November 3 during the Cathedral’s opening hours.
Accompanying the Mars sculpture is a newly created sound composition by BAFTA and Ivor Novello award-winning composer Dan Jones. Featuring the sounds of seas, deserts and clips from NASA missions to Mars, it also incorporates the sounds of distant bombing and people marching, as if to war.
Luke said: “Presented with a new soundtrack in the context of a church or cathedral, a space to encourage peaceful contemplation, Mars: War and Peace provides an opportunity for the public to consider the history of human conflict around the world.
“I hope that visitors will feel transported to the inhospitable desert wasteland of Mars, whilst also reflecting on the realities of war for ordinary communities of people on our planet.”
Main image: Luke Jerram with Mars: War and Peace (photo © David Chan)