By Leah Gabriella Cardenas

“The Sun and The Moon: Art Inspired by the Celestial” is an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery running until the 8th of September. Spanning nine rooms on two floors, the exhibition explores how the two celestial bodies have influenced art across multiple mediums and decades.

Each room focuses on a different aspect of influence. It begins with Dawn, a look into how the Sun and Moon influenced early belief systems. My favorite in this room is Emilie Pugh’s “Helios”. Up close, you can see that Pugh burns paper and puts it in front of gold leaf to get that visual of the Sun.

Moving onto The Rising Sun, the second room focuses on time and seasons. There are several paintings of harvest scenes and sunrises. An interesting piece in this room is Katie Paterson’s “–there lay the Days between–” which is a clock counting every sunrise on Earth since its beginning.

Then, Zenith looks at the Sun when at its peak and its relationship to human bodies. Featured are sun and moon inspired tattoos by Thomas Hooper, a Sussex based artist. Nine black and white photographs of the tattoos hang on the wall. This is just one example of the unique mediums showcased in this exhibition. 

Setting Sun has a focus on transformations. There is a section on tarot showing the significance of the Sun and Moon. Jamie Hewlett’s “La Lune” and “Le Soleil” are also featured. These large recreations of tarot cards were originally made for another Saatchi Gallery exhibition back in 2015. 

The halfway point is “Helios” by Luke Jerram. Jerram is a British installation artist known for large sculptures and projects. He made a reproduction of the Sun using over 400,000 photographs. The room also includes deck chairs and a soundscape so visitors can take the time to take in the details of the Sun’s surface. This was also where many have taken advantage of the unique photo-op with the Sun. 

Moving upstairs is Evening which focuses on the Moon. Suspended in the center of the room is Saad Qureshi’s split moon. I enjoyed Fumie Onuki’s “2025_18″ which used Japanese paper, Nepali paper, and watercolor to show the moon at different points in the sky.

Walking on the Moon veers from the ‘time of day’ theme, taking a look at the cultural impact of space exploration. Showcased in this room are comics and movie posters inspired by the Apollo missions. My personal favorite here was Marcos Kueh’s “Woven Banner: The Virgin’s Voyage – to the Moon” which is based on Chang’e, the goddess of the moon in Chinese mythology. The wide range of pieces in this room reflects the diversity of the entire exhibition.

Next is Midnight which explores the Moon’s influence on folklore and magic. This room features paintings of people worshipping the moon. I thought it was unique that they also have sketches of moon or night-inspired costumes and set designs for different ballets, one being the Royal Ballet’s “Swan Lake”.

The exhibition ends with the Darkest Hours, an immersive installation by teamLab. Visitors are invited into a dark room with hanging lights that create the illusion of light and dark spheres. The lights dim and brighten to the beat of a song. As a conclusion to the exhibition, it allows visitors to think about how they interpret light and therefore the Sun and Moon. 

I enjoyed my visit to “The Sun and The Moon” exhibition. I thought the rooms were well put together thematically. I also loved that there were a range of pieces on display from historical artifacts to modern installations. Standard tickets to the exhibition are £20 and I think it is entirely worth it. Visit the Saatchi Gallery website for more information.