Review: Space, St Martin-in-the-Fields

Space is a thirty-minute light and sound installation; an ‘immersive journey’ that promises to ‘take you to the edge of the universe and back’ and asks visitors to ‘think about what humans have achieved in our place in the world.’ Luxmuralis (Peter Walker, MRBS FRSA and David Harper, MSC) have staged the piece in several churches around the UK, and previously at St Martin-in-the-Fields in 2023. It seems fitting to host this in a church, a venue meant for questioning the nature of existence and what lies beyond our earthly view.

The installation layout includes the exterior walls of the iconic St Martin-in-the-Fields’ courtyard, its crypt and main church. In fact, Space began as I waited in the queue to enter the courtyard – a sign the night was oversold, or perhaps an intentional choice to build anticipation. I stood for about fifteen minutes, watching two kaleidoscopic patterns flicker on the great stone façades. 

Once in the courtyard, visitors are rounded up in groups to be shuffled downstairs into the crypt. The connection to the theme of ‘space’ is strongest in this section, with historical footage from the 1969 moon landing and scrolling textà laStar Wars projected on the corridor walls, a nod to the popular culture dimension of the theme. While a promising setup, the next room, St Martin-in-the-Fields’ cavernous crypt, is speckled with a faint, galaxy-themed pattern of slowly oscillating white dots (faraway stars?) with little movement or change. Ushers held us in another queue to wait for one loop of the finale to complete in the next section, so I had ample time to observe. While I am an advocate for durational art – patience has a dramaturgy – the flow of the experience did not encourage reflection or meditation.

The finale in the main church attempts to bring several motifs together, incorporating realistic space exploration media, science fiction (traveling through a wormhole is by far the most interesting moment) and more psychedelic mandalas. This section is also the most technical, with more precise projection mapping than in other parts. However, the finale consists of short clips with little through-line, a scattershot approach which ends the experience rather anti-climatically.

Overall, the pacing feels rushed and transactional. The format itself is confused, somewhere between exhibit and walking tour – some visitors chatted loudly, treating the installation more like a backdrop, others filmed on their phones. Truthfully, the projections appear more impressive on a screen; in reality, the brightly lit spaces dull the contrast required to appreciate their rich colours.

The experience was a bit like going to Disney World: Space promises to be something for everyone, but in doing so its impact becomes limited. It is a promising concept with rich fodder to draw from, but it lacks a point of view. A deeper investigation into one of its many prongs (e.g., technology, pop culture, metaphysics) would enable the installation to better address its own premise: staking out our place in the universe. 

Lead artist and Artistic Director: Peter Walker, MRBS FRSA
Lead artist and Composer: David Harper, MSC

Space at St Martin-in-the-Fields runs until Saturday 21 February.