Luxmuralis – The Projection Art Gallery – Review
by Hugh Maguire

Luxmuralis at St Martin-in-the-Fields
Dates:  17th – 21st  of Feb

Thanks to Paul Ribet Houdin, the first son et Lumiere was presented at the beautiful Château de Chambord in 1952.  Now widespread across France in the summer season, the special lighting and sound effects bring historic buildings to life, transforming the already beautiful into the magical. My only experience was at Amiens  Cathedral.  It was informative, exquisitely executed and remains a vivid memory. We are now in an age – if not a golden one – of immersive light shows.  Warehouses across the country stage the likes of Van Gogh or Gustav Klimt, where sometimes diminutive paintings are blown up into a whole wraparound light experience, floor to ceiling, where the viewer has nowhere to escape. David Hockney has partnered with the Light Room, King’s Cross, on Bigger & Closer (not smaller and further away), which has the advantage of the artist’s direct and informed input, as he himself explores the potential of new creative media – a journey he has been on for some time.

And then there is Luxmuralis at St Martin-in-the-Fields, with much fanfare, media coverage and promotion.  Labelled as art on an epic scale, it sets out to transform the space of James Gibb’s exquisite architecture (1722) into an exploration of Space and the meaning of life and faith itself. Building on the experience of comparable projects in cathedrals and historic sites across England, the viewer is meant to be transported to other realms through a symphony of sounds and visuals that explode across the church’s elegant interiors.  There are certainly moments of beauty, brief and fleeting, because the lights never stay still for an instant.  But there are problems galore in execution, a lack of crispness, where the architecture and the lighting just clash rather than enhance each other, which was presumably the intention.  The visitor is brought through the crypt – at least an opportunity to see the excellent construction techniques holding up the building – and there is some cursory lighting here and there, more akin to a child playing with a laser pointer. Then, through a narrow doorway, we ascend to the church proper – the ascent itself creating a sense of expectation.  The experience never quite delivers – the lighting comes across as amateurish, and the celebrated music is akin to something playing in the background of a hotel spa experience.    It would all be wonderful if you came upon it by chance, but it does little for the reputation of a historic site.  Mere yards along the street at the junction of Tottenham Court and Charing Cross roads is Outernet London, attracting thousands and thousands of people daily and all for free.  It employs state-of-the-art technology and creates effects never before seen or imagined.  Depending on the time and day, it transports the viewer into space or the depths of a jungle or ocean.  It has become one of the great sights of London.   Luxmaralis may have to up the ante.