Opening tomorrow, Sir John Soane’s Museum presents Georgian Illuminations, an exhibition exploring the spectacular light shows of the Georgian era through surviving designs, drawings and prints. As part of this exhibition, a new contemporary commission by artist Nayan Kulkarni, inspired by Soane’s architecture and skilful use of light, will illuminate the front of the Museum on Lincoln’s Inn Fields each evening.
At the height of the Georgian period, these complex light displays, created using glass lamps, temporary architecture, fireworks and transparencies, were an important form of popular entertainment. This exhibition examines Sir John Soane’s involvement in designing these installations and how they were experienced by people from across society.
The exhibition will include two never-before-seen linen transparencies which were created as part of an ‘illumination night’ in 1814 to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon by Britain and its allies, led by the Duke of Wellington. Transparencies were displayed back-lit in the windows of public buildings and principal houses across London and other cities. These two rare survivors will be illuminated once again in the Museum’s Foyle Space on bespoke lightboxes.
Prints and drawings from the period will explore how illuminations were used in private entertainments, national celebrations and in places of popular entertainment. They include spectacular designs by Robert Adam and other leading artists and architects for royal birthdays and jubilees and breathtaking displays of light at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. The exhibition also showcases Soane’s plans for illuminating the Bank of England to mark the recovery of George III from illness in 1789 and the 1809 jubilee.
As part of this exhibition, celebrated installation artist Nayan Kulkarni will illuminate the façade of the Museum with a newly commissioned light work. This commission is the product of a year’s in-depth research focusing on the Museum and its collections. It is inspired by Soane’s own work and his use of light, drawing on techniques that would have been familiar to Soane himself. From dusk, visitors will enjoy a constantly changing interplay between the Museum’s façade and projected abstract geometries.
This exhibition is co-curated by Dr Melanie Doderer-Winkler and Sir John Soane’s Museum’s Head of Exhibitions, Dr Louise Stewart.
Louise Stewart, Head of Exhibitions at Sir John Soane’s Museum, said Georgian Illuminations sheds light on illuminations as an important part of Georgian life, created by Soane and his peers and experienced by people from across society at that time. The display of these historic works, some for the first time, provides a tantalising glimpse of magnificent Georgian entertainments. Nayan Kulkarni’s exciting new commission demonstrates the long-lasting legacy of Soane’s work and how he can continue to inspire artists and designers to this day.
Nayan Kulkarni, said Sir John Soane’s ambitious architectural vision has inspired my work ever since my first visit to the Museum in 1995. His playful choreography of light and reflection creates an ever-changing dance of colour and shadow in the Museum which is at the heart of this unique work. Drawing from the Museum and Joseph Michael Gandy’s drawings in the collection, this installation imagines new forms of architecture on the Soane’s iconic façade.
