A new exhibition in London, titled ‘Night Maps’, explores the history of celestial cartography, revealing how humanity’s understanding of the universe has been shaped by myth, religion, and scientific ambition. The exhibition, which features items from the Sunderland Collection, includes contributions from contemporary artists and thinkers who selected maps they found especially resonant.
Personal Connections to the Cosmos
Artist Ali Kazim found a profound connection between a 1708 celestial atlas and a childhood memory. He recalled watching nomadic women in Pakistan fire clay toys beneath the full moon, an image that echoed when he saw the detailed star charts in Cellarius’s Harmonia Macrocosmica. For Kazim, the moon is not just a celestial body but a vessel for memory and universal experience, as seen in his work Chaand.
Jonathan Wright, a globe maker, was struck by a 1515 Map of the World as a Sphere by Albrecht Dürer and Johannes Stabius. He noted how the woodcut marked a philosophical shift from flat medieval diagrams, presenting Earth as a solid object in the cosmos. The map’s inclusion of 12 Classical wind gods showed a Renaissance mindset that intertwined mathematics with art and the divine, a balance Wright strives for in his own craft.
Artistic Interpretations of the Stars
Simon Bejer, a resident artist of the Sunderland Collection, was captivated by Johann Bayer’s Uranometria (1603). He admired the atlas’s disorienting beauty, comparing its star-filled pages to the decorative ceiling of Grand Central station in New York. Bejer pointed out the distinctly Asiatic asymmetry in Bayer’s constellations, seeing them as designs more aligned with modern artists like Paul Klee than traditional masters.
Academic John Tresch highlighted a 1711 Nepalese world plate, or bhūgola, commissioned by Prince Kirti Simha. This map, which merges scientific knowledge with religious reverence, serves as an object for darshan, a devotional contemplation. In a contemporary context marked by plans for space colonization, Tresch noted the map offers a humbling reminder to view the sky not as a resource to exploit, but as a power deserving of respect.
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Artist Jananne Al-Ani explored the darker side of humanity’s desire to map and control. She noted how the raised perspective used in cartography can also be co-opted for military surveillance and destruction. Her video installation, Half Flight, uses diagrams from Kâtib Celebi’s Cihannümâ to weave together aviation history and map-making, exposing the tension between seeing and knowing.
Tais Rose Wae, a textile artist and poet, found inspiration in a 1540 volvelle by Petrus Apianus. This rotating paper instrument, used to calculate Jupiter’s position, reminded her of the spiritual areas painted by Hilma af Klint. Wae noted a blue silk thread, knotted with a seed pearl, which she saw as an umbilical cord connecting the small instrument to the cosmos. Her own practice uses pearls and silk on a loom, weaving stories about memory and lineage, much like constellations are projected across the sky. She reflected on how maps can name and divide, while considering Aboriginal knowledge of the sky that exists beyond a map’s boundaries.
Mapping the Cosmos Through History
Exhibits show humanity’s enduring desire to understand the world through cartography. This need has also had darker consequences. Once flying machines were created, they were immediately used by Western military powers for surveillance and weapons delivery. The raised view that expands understanding can also be used for destruction.
Ancient Myths and Modern Art
Jessica Rankin, an artist, has studied creation myths to make sense of the contemporary world. Her artworks, which combine paint and embroidery, draw patterns from celestial and topographic maps. She was drawn to a 17th-century map by Fr Athanasius Kircher, which depicts Earth as a body with water channels and lava-filled core. Rankin saw this map as resonant with creation myths, describing Earth as an organism with vascular and organ-like features. The map’s premise that seismic activity results from water and fire mingling felt both scientific and mythological to her.
‘Night Maps’ runs at the Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London WC1, until 17 April. Entry, Tues–Fri, 11–6, is free.
