Ribbon of Lights

Bruce Munro's monumental and experiential installations have illuminated venues and hearts all over the world.

- MICHELE KOH MOROLLO

If, after sundown, you visit the UNESCO World Heritage site of Uluru-the_red monolithic sandstone rock in the Northern Territory that's one of Australia's most famous landmarks-you'll see a spectacle of 50,000 fantastical, fairy-like spindles of violet, blue, ochre, and white light spread out and swaying across a field. With the mysterious ancient red rock as its backdrop, and surrounded by desert and sparse bushland, the lit spindles seem to dance and glow in communion with the rugged landscape and the starry night sky.

Field of Light, the large-scale light art installation fashioned from fibre optic light sources within glass and acrylic structures, is one of the most prominent works of English-Australian artist Bruce Munro, and different versions of it have been displayed across the United Kingdom, Australia, and North America, as well as in Mexico, Denmark, and South Korea. Field of Light Uluru has been so popular that it has been extended indefinitely.

Munro's other works include Time and Again, with 37 stainless steel "lilies" laid out in a convex pattern that shimmer with radial starbursts of light; C-scales, an audiovisual installation composed of a reflective sea of CDs and DVDs; and Water-Towers, which consists of 69 towers, each built with more than 200 stacked bottles filled with water and illuminated by optic fibres that seem to dance to the music as they change colour in an offset pattern. All mesmerise and remind us of the delicate relationships between nature and technology.