Moon and Mackintosh

I plan to focus some research for the Art Nouveau Course on the Queen’s Cross Church, Glasgow. Although I knew about this, it was one of the few Mackintosh buildings we had never been to; most we have seen at least once over the years, some several times. It was one of Mackintosh’s first commissions, designed in 1896 and opened in 1899. 

So we set out this morning on the train to Glasgow and then a bus to Queen’s Cross. Although I had heard something about a moon installation, we were astonished as we arrived inside the church to find this enormous sculpture hanging there. Apparently it features detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface, each centimetre of it representing 5km of the moon’s surface. There was an accompanying surround-sound composition featuring music, voices. Museum of the Moon is a touring artwork by UK artist Luke Jerram. It is amazing.

Gordon was fascinated by it, but I was also occupied with wandering around the building, taking photos. It is hard to imagine what it was like when it was used as a church, it seated 820 people, as changes have been made and now it has a moon in its centre! But it is still impressive and has all the Mackintosh attributes that I needed. 

Bus back to the city centre, where it was a lovely sunny afternoon, late lunch at  Sarti’s and back home on the train. 

Blip is the beautiful Blue Heart window . . . and the moon.