In the sleepy fields near Swindon — England’s very own Space Exploration outpost — Watercolour artist and amateur rocket scientist Saki Pentona has launched (quite literally) an exhibition called “Terra Firma Is So Last Century”. It is less a conventional show and more a declaration of interplanetary ambition, featuring Saki’s meticulous plans, blueprints, and watercolours of space rockets and Martian colonies, all within a three-quarter size rocket. If you expected pastoral landscapes or delicate florals, think again: here, the earth-bound parochialism of the art world is blasted off into the cosmic void.
Pentona’s work owes more to the Futurists than the Romantics, channeling a feverish obsession with speed, technology, and the expansion of human horizons. Yet unlike Marinetti’s fever dreams of mechanised warfare and urban frenzy, Saki’s vision is both whimsical and grandiose — part engineering blueprint, part manifesto. The show reads as a blueprint for humanity’s future, executed with the delicate touch of a brush dipped in Martian dust.
Highlighting the exhibition is a staged “performance art” rocket launch from a Swindon field — an act of theatrical bravado that may have been more impressive for its earnestness than its altitude. It’s hard to say if the rocket actually made it off the ground or simply served as a symbolic gesture, but the spectacle of an artist attempting to literally break free of gravity is undeniably compelling.
Pentona regards his work as a manifesto against the insularity of the contemporary art world:
“The art world is too parochial, too focused on the earth. I intend to be the first artist to exhibit on Mars. My work currently consists of my plans, designs and blueprints for space rockets, Mars houses and associated necessaries. Living on Mars will be a huge step forward for mankind, and my work will be at the forefront of the push to live on other planets. This will be a struggle, it will make Fitzcarraldo’s endeavours look like a stroll round Hyde Park, but I will be there, the first coloniser of Mars.”
Saki’s ambitions include launching the Earth2Mars Rocket from Mount Snowdon in late 2025 — presumably when the Welsh hills will double as a launchpad and exhibition space — and designing a Martian colony flag, perhaps a new banner under which earthlings might trade their cynicism for space suits from the locals.
Collectors are invited to purchase copies of his designs, so long as they don’t actually attempt to build their own rockets. Proceeds from these sales will fund the first Earth2Mars rocket and the colony itself, a tantalizing fusion of commerce, art, and interplanetary colonialism. And for the truly adventurous, there’s an invitation to join Saki on a test flight to the moon — pack your own space suit and lunch.
Pentona’s exhibition is an intriguing blend of naïve optimism and sardonic critique: it skewers the art world’s obsession with the terrestrial while simultaneously indulging in an audacious fantasy of cosmic pioneering. Whether he will be remembered as an avant-garde visionary or a quixotic hobbyist remains to be seen, but one thing is certain — Saki Pentona’s watercolours and rockets make for a boldly singular spectacle. If the future of art lies beyond our atmosphere, then consider this exhibition a boarding call.
So, who’s ready to trade their gallery pass for a ticket to Mars?
