World-renowned light artist Bruce Munro is back on the scene with an installation at Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum, Nashville, Tennessee – and once again, he’s taken some color, a smidge of light, and improved upon the night time viewing of life in the park. When asked about his experience in the park, Bruce Munro had this to say:
‘during my first visit to cheekwood earlier in the year, I had a visceral reaction to the scale and positioning of the estate’s buildings. they are at one with the landscape, breeding a sense of understated balance and harmony that truly inspired me and undoubtedly permeates the visitor experience,’ said munro. ‘this is the most perfect place to exhibit because it provides a variety of opportunities to respond to — each space varies in both scale and topographical character. in addition, cheekwood’s world class exhibition galleries are a veritable jewel in its crown. I feel lucky and privileged to install my work at this prestigious and beautiful estate.’
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The Cheekwood site has a lot of great information about the installation, including the what-and-wheres of the pieces. From the Cheekwood website:
Mansion Lawn and surrounding gardens/Field of Light
At the center of the exhibition’s many installations will be the Field of Light, which submerges the viewer within a landscape of 20,000 lighted glass spheres, each rising from the ground on a slender stem.This is the largest Field of Light expanse Munro has ever created in a rolling landscape, and is designed to utilise the existing pathways in the garden to allow people to wander through it and view it from various different perspectives.
Materials: Frosted glass spheres, acrylic rods mounted on stakes, bare optic fiber, halogen light sources with hand-painted color wheels
Japanese Bamboo Garden/Fireflies
Hundreds of cool white Fireflies will be installed throughout the bamboo leading into Cheekwood’s Japanese garden, creating a magical space of illuminated springs amongst the bamboo.
Materials: Copper tube, brass stakes, acrylic polymer fiber optic cable
Japanese Garden Pavilion/Candlelight
Visitors will have just exited the bamboo garden and the Fireflies when they arrive at the pavilion in the Japanese Garden. Candlelight will introduce something architectural in form and warm in color temperature. Hundreds of flickering LED candle luminaires will make the pavilion become an illuminated stage.
Materials: Treated timber, stainless steel fixings, LED candle luminaires
Japanese Garden Dry Lake/Blue Moon
The dry lake within the Japanese garden is an intimate space, set in a valley of rounded hills. The Blue Moon is 5’ in diameter and will appear as a giant hovering moon of flickering icy blues.
Materials: Clear acrylic spheres and acrylic polymer fiber, stainless steel
Robertson Ellis Color Garden/Water-Towers
Water-Towers 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. This installation beckons visitors to immerse themselves in the spaces between the towers to explore the spectacle of light and sounds.
Materials: LEDs, fiber optics, new one-litre PET bottles, audio system
Mustard Meadow/Light Reservation
Light Reservation is an assembly of tipi-like structures made from spent fluorescent tubes on an expanse of Cheekwood’s lawn by the ponds.
Materials: Redundant 60w fluorescent tubes, 12v electric fence modules, polymer filters, polycarbonate tubes
Reflection Pool/Fagin’s Urchins
Fagin’s Urchins are a site-specific installation created for the formal reflection pool at Cheekwood. Sap green spheres are positioned centrally in a line close to the water’s surface across the reflection pool. By night the surface of each sphere becomes an illuminated Lilliputian world of the night.
Materials: Polycarbonate, acrylic polymer fiber optics, stainless steel
Cheekwood’s Mansion Loggia/ Light Shower
The double height of the iconic Loggia in the Cheekwood mansion offers a wonderful opportunity for Munro to create a site specific installation of the Light Shower, an installation of 1,650 teardrop-shaped diffusers suspended from the ceiling by fiber-optic strands.
Materials: Acrylic diffuser drops, powder-coated mild steel, acrylic polymer fiber
Cheekwood’s Mansion Rotunda Staircase/Bell Drop Chandelier
The stunning rotunda staircase in the Cheekwood mansion will be transformed with the beautiful Bell Drop Chandelier. A cascade of fiber optic cables terminates in a miniature conical brass bell shade approximately seven feet from the ground floor level.
Materials: Brass, powder-coated mild steel, acrylic polymer fiber optic
Cheekwood’s Museum of Art Galleries/Exhibition
A gallery in the Museum of Art will be dedicated to small-scale works and videos from Bruce Munro.
Thanks, DesignBoom!
