Michael Ward, Rose Strang. Demarco Gallery at Summerhall (photo Fernanda Zei)

Richard Demarco. Michael Ward. Main Hall, Summerhall (photo Adam Brewster)

The launch of ‘The Planets. The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis’ was a great success and very enjoyable indeed!

The exhibition continues until Sunday the 22nd September and is open daily from 1 to 6pm at the Demarco Galleries, Summerhall.

Associated Events:

On Saturday 21st, from 3 to 5pm, there will be an associated event in the gallery space, featuring an animation by Adam Brewster, which very poetically captures the idea of changing planetary influence according to the Medieval cosmos and the imagination of C.S. Lewis. This will be followed by a moving excerpt from ‘The Last Battle’ by C.S. Lewis: ‘Night falls on Narnia’, read by Dr Charles Stephens. The event will round off with a cello performance in response to this excerpt from ‘The Last Battle’, by cellist/composer Atzi Muramatsu, with whom I’ve had the pleasure to collaborate since 2013.

It was a pleasure to finally meet Dr Michael Ward, author of Planet Narnia. The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis.

It’s always interesting to meet someone whose work you admire;  a bonus if you enjoy their company too! Michael really added towards making the event relaxed and good-humoured –  friends and family and all there including myself enjoyed meeting him.

Although Michael Ward’s ideas on the Narniad can be summarised in a few phrases on one level, it’s a complex subject that benefits most from in-depth reading around the ideas. Readers of this blog will have learned some of the concepts expressed in ‘Planet Narnia’ here, but Michael Ward’s talk on Thursday demonstrated how much more effective it is to actually hear Michael talk about it – far more entertaining!

The talk was fascinating and sparked a range of interesting questions afterwards. I heard first-hand from several friends how intrigued they were by the subject, and that they’ll be reading more about it, so I hope that leads to more sales of ‘Planet Narnia’.

There was discussion of a potential follow-on exhibition in Oxford, so fingers crossed that will find a way to go ahead next year.

Michael Ward. Fernanda Zei. (Photo Rose Strang)

I was very moved by the attention to detail by exhibition curator Fernanda Zei, who understood the themes and visual aesthetics so intelligently and presented them with great sensitivity.

For me there was no doubt where I wanted to show this exhibition; Richard Demarco’s work across the decades is characterised by a search for truth, meaning and healing in the arts. I knew that Richard, Terry Anne Newman (Deputy Director of the Demarco Archive Trust) and Fernanda Zei (Demarco Trust Curator) would respond to the themes and present the exhibition with intelligence and they surpassed my expectations in that regard.

My warm thanks to Michael Ward, all at the Demarco Galleries, and to loved ones, family and friends who attended. Particular thanks and appreciation to Christine Aldred, who bought ‘Sun’!

I’ll be posting a video of the event here soon …

Demarco Gallery. (photo Adam Brewster)