Over many years, the Rumble Museum has accumulated a collection of fantasy and speculative fiction early editions. These have been displayed in cabinets around the site, but the recent refurbishment of the Library led to the need to take down all the cabinets and an original Rumble Museum vinyl. Rather than simply replace everything, we decided to create a striking forest mural featuring characters and objects from our fiction collection.
The initial mural idea, conceived by Rumble Director, Dr Lorna Robinson, was a black and white forest, like an illustration in an old-fashioned fairy tale book, filled with objects and characters which would be in colour. The idea has now been turned into a highly detailed, vivid and striking design by Milton Keynes-based artist and designer Luke McDonnell. Luke worked intensively over the school's half term week to create a stunning work of art. He created a mysterious wrap-around effect, to reflect the idea of the forest creeping round corners, and used pen and ink to render an intricate, book illustration effect on a huge scale.
The mural features characters from well-known fantasy Oxford authors such as Tolkien's Gollum and Pullman's Lyra. It also features a character from C.S. Lewis' Out Of The Silent Planet and a dragon from Katherine Rundell's Impossible Creatures. A Handmaid from Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale sits next to a Sandman from the dystopian novel Logan's Run, and Daphne from ancient Greek myth is seen encased in bark. There is a pegasus, also from Greek myth, and a leopard from Chris Beckett's Dark Eden. Objects such as the Auryn from Neverending Story can also be seen. The Rumble Museum is intending to hold an official launch event in the New Year, but in the meantime, students, staff, and visitors are able to enjoy the mural in the recently refurbished library.
