Celebrated English-Australian artist Bruce Munro is presenting his first-ever museum exhibition at Heide this winter. From Sunrise Road features both indoor and outdoor interactive installations that show off Munro's adept skill in working with light.
Here in Australia, Munro is perhaps best known for his massive 'Field of Light' installation at Uluru. The installation was first shown in 2016 and has 50,000 flower-like spindle light bulbs cover the desert – and it's from this work that Munro's new outdoor installation at Heide, 'Candent Spring', draws from. Within 'Candent Spring' you'll also find 'Time and Again', a series of tessellating abstract clock faces or stainless steel water lilies marked with symbols that try to give the concept of time a visual representation.
During daylight hours 'Time and Again' works as mirrors, literally reflecting the passage of time as the sky changes from the morning, to noon and to dusk. At night, the gleaming discs shine like stars and are amplified by the clusters of "fireflies" (spindly, anemone-like fibre optic forms) that guests can walk in between and explore.
From Sunrise Road continues indoors, with Heide presenting several of Munro's top works. 'Ferryman's Crossing' comprises dozens of recycled CDs meshed together like an ocean with reflecting beams of light projected onto the work in morse code. 'Ferryman's Crossing' is inspired by the Herman Hesse novel Siddhartha, with the light projections echoing how mariners could communicate this way across large bodies of water.
Other works to see in the exhibition include 'Reflections' (kaleidoscopic animations again inspired in part by morse code) and 'Time and Place: Sunrise Road' (an in-flux grid of colour created from 1980s photographs of Sydney).
Heide is usually only open during the day, but will run evening sessions so that Melburnians can see Munro's dazzling light installations in their prime. They'll also be offering food and drinks to snap up for your wander through the light installation – including wintery white mulled wine. Evening entry is from Thursday to Saturday, until 8pm.
Bruce Munro: From Sunrise Road runs from June 25 to October 16. Tickets are free with museum entry.
