Among the world’s most brilliant artistic minds is Bruce Munro. Much has been written about the Devon-born British artist, who is renowned today for his adventurous sculptural light works and dramatic installations. Inspired by the natural phenomena he has witnessed in life, Munro’s creations are incredibly unique. As if by magic, they subtly draw people in, stirring emotions. Great words and praises are directed at his works and his unexpected techniques and lighting effects are definitely his personal royal flush. Before moving to Australia to begin his career, Munro completed a BA in Fine arts at Bristol Polytechnic, which is known today as the University of West of England. He was interested in light as a medium of expression since he began his studies at art school. But it wasn’t until his mid twenties when he lived in Australia, that he began to work and experiment with light in a formal sense. australia then became his muse, the backdrop that inspired most of his biggest ideas. Like many other artists, Munro jotted his ideas in sketch books which he never discarded. He sketched during his stay Down Under, whenever he became inspired by the island’s natural light and environment. His life’s turning point came when he reached forty, after the death of his father, when he realised that the time had arrived for him to embark on a career in art. armed with enough confidence and experience to give it a go, he returned to the UK to set up a studio and began making some of the world’s most stunning lighting works, many of which were based on ideas taken from his old sketch books.
His breathtaking, large-scale art installations have made Munro an incredibly famous artist today with an impressive international reputation. The ‘Field of light’, which is made up of thousands of thin-stemmed lights that change color “planted” in grassy fields and the roof of the visitor’s center at the Eden project in Cornwall, is arguably Munro’s best-known and most admired work globally. His visit to Uluru, a World Heritage site at the heart of the Australian Red Desert in 1992, inspired him to dream of a field of light in the desert. Munro was transfixed by the way the desert was barren until it rained and then, as if from nowhere, dormant seeds would burst into bloom. ‘Field of light’ has been installed in a number of places around the world including London’s Harvey Nichols department store during London Fashion Week, Victoria and Albert Museum, long Knoll in Wiltshire, Holburne Museum and Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.
Mid last year there was talk about Munro seeking the help of crowd fundraising to bring his iconic ‘Field of light’ installation back to its birthplace, Uluru. Munro wanted to set up a monumental piece consisting of 250,000 stems within a one-square kilometer area next to Uluru, though the final number would depend on how much money he could raise. If all goes according to plan the installation will be his largest to date and take six weeks to complete. Up to 3,290 kilometers of optical fibers and 165 kilometers of recycled 12mm acrylic tube will be used to bring the installation to life. over 500 LED illuminators will be powered by the day’s supply of solar energy to enable the installation to be lit for four hours from dusk every evening. 
The Uluru project was slated to take place from May to october this year. However, the latest news about Bruce Munro mentions nothing about Uluru. Instead, a plan has been revealed for an exhibition in Cheekwood Botanical Garden and the Museum of art in the USA, which will take place from 24th May to 10th November, following Bruce’s success in longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.
The Uluru project was slated to take place from May to october this year. However, the latest news about Bruce Munro mentions nothing about Uluru. Instead, a plan has been revealed for an exhibition in Cheekwood Botanical Garden and the Museum of art in the USA, which will take place from 24th May to 10th November, following Bruce’s success in longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.
The exhibition in Cheekwood will be Munro’s second North American exhibition of light. Using an inventive array of materials and hundreds of miles of glowing optical fiber, Munro will transform Cheekwood’s beautiful gardens into an enchanting, dream- like landscape. The site-specific exhibition has been uniquely designed by the artist to bring out the best of Cheekwood’s rolling hills, expansive views and magnificent gardens. During the exhibition, Cheekwood will be open until 11pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening so as to present the grandscale exhibition in its most stunning light (no pun intended), under the night sky. Just as in the previous light exhibition at longwood Gardens, the Cheekwood exhibition will feature variations of Munro’s well-known installations, which will be placed in different locations, allowing visitors to embark on a journey to the unknown magical world of the light wizard.
Light is my passion. I always carry a sketchbook and everything that touches my life goes into it. Making sculptures and lights from these jottings is what I do, and my only ambition is to do more!
At the center of the exhibition’s many installations will be the ‘Field of light’, which will take place within the mansion’s lawn and surrounding gardens, submerging the viewer within a landscape of 20,000 stems created using materials such as frosted glass spheres, acrylic rods mounted on stakes, bare optical fiber and halogen light sources with hand-painted color wheels. This is the largest ‘Field of light’ expanse Munro has ever created in a rolling landscape, and is designed to utilize the existing pathways in the garden to allo people to wander through it and view it from different perspectives.
Away from the ‘Field of light’, visitors will find hundreds of cool white ‘Fireflies’, made of copper tube, brass stakes and acrylic polymer fiber optic cables installed in Cheekwood’s Japanese bamboo garden, creating a magical space of an illuminated spring. Beyond the bamboo garden is the pavilion in the Japanese Garden, transformed into an illuminated stage by hundreds of flickering lED candles. The dry lake within the Japanese garden, which is set in a valley of rounded hills, is where the 5-foot diameter ‘Blue Moon’ will be placed, appearing as a giant hovering moon of flickering icy blue, made of clear acrylic spheres, acrylic polymer fiber and stainless steel.
Two of Munro’s most famous creations that drew international praise, the ‘Water Towers’ and ‘light Showers’, will also be featured to impress those who have never witnessed it. The ‘Water Towers’ installation is comprised of 40 structures built out of one-litre recyclable plastic bottles filled with water, laser-cut wood layers, and fiber optics connected to an LED projector and sound system. The installation beckons visitors to immerse themselves in the spaces between the towers to explore the spectacle of light and sound. When the ‘Water Towers’ were installed in the Cloister of Salisbury Cathedral, the illuminated musical maze took Munro 10 days to build. Meanwhile, the ‘Light Shower’ will be installed in the iconic Loggia in the Cheekwood mansion, an installation of 1,650 teardrop-shaped diffusers suspended from the ceiling by fiber-optic strands.
One art installation that is hard to forget is when Munro wowed the world with his simple idea of a sea that emits colorful light. The art installation was named ‘CDSea’, made of 600,000 CDs laid out on the grass in Wiltshire, UK. It is Munro’s first of a number of self-funded installations using discarded or recycled materials. The installation is bisected by a public footpath. again, the idea was spawned by nature on one homesick Sunday afternoon on a rocky peninsula at Nielsen Park, Sydney, which had become a meditative spot for Munro. Munro was watching how the sunlight played on the ocean waves like a blanket of shimmering silver light, when he had the childish notion that by putting his hand in the sea he was somehow connected to his home in Salcombe, where his father lived. It was the first time he was aware that the play of light could transform his mood, and he was astonished that something so familiar had the power to alter his emotional state.
Will there be other artists who can amaze us as much as Bruce Munro? Sure. But we respect Munro for the wonderment he has made us feel and how he inspires us. He’s a figure whose presence is celebrated, and whose absence would be one of the world’s biggest losses.
