Connection and Identity at Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College

Experience Connection and Identity by Peter Walker, two large-scale interactive artworks using light and sound that invite us to contemplate what it means to be human. 

Identity will feature eight illuminated columns suspended within the Painted Hall, evoking DNA structures. Shifting in colour and rhythm, these columns of light, fuse history, science, and imagination to provide a visual meditation on what connects and distinguishes us.   

Connection showcases a dramatic and modern reinterpretation of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, signifying hope, reason and belief.  In a striking contemporary twist on traditional narratives, Walker’s sculptures replace the traditionally male hands with casts of women’s hands. Just as this classic story is reflected in the part of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling masterpiece, Walker’s interpretation of this tale will be exhibited in the Painted Hall, often cited as ‘Britain’s Sistine Chapel’. 

Installed together in the Painted Hall and accompanied by music specially composed by David Harper, Connection and Identity offer a transformative encounter between heritage and contemporary art. This unique collaboration instils a dialogue between past and present and the themes that unite us.