Field of Light

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Bruce Munro’s Field of Light at the Holburne
26 November 2011 to 8 January 2012
Open daily 4 to 7pm, admission free

The Holburne Museum will offer visitors a new, and free, winter experience when Field of Light, the artwork of acclaimed lighting artist Bruce Munro, is switched on in the grounds of the Museum at 4pm on Saturday 26 November. Field of Light is open from 4 to 7pm daily.

Field of Light at the Holburne will consist of over 5,000 bulbs of light planted in the grounds of the Museum and flowing into the Garden Cafe. Acrylic stems are topped by frosted spheres which are threaded with fibre optic cables and lit by a colour projector. The result is quite magical, as both colour and light flow through the bulbs to create a uniquely captivating experience.

Field of Light
Photo: pickstocks.co.uk

The seed for Bruce Munro’s inspiration to create this artwork was planted nearly twenty years ago while travelling in Australia. He became transfixed by the way in which the barren dessert would burst into bloom after rainfall. Field of Light too lies dormant during the hours of day light, but when darkness falls the bulbs flower with gentle rhythms of light and patterns of colour.

Alexander Sturgis, Director of the Holburne, notes, “We are delighted that Bruce Munro’s artwork will bring such a magical experience of light within our grounds at the darkest time of the year. At what, for most people, is a frantic time of festive preparation we are pleased to be able to offer a tranquil and uplifting experience at the Holburne.”

Until 8 January, visitors to the Holburne will be tempted in to enjoy the light experience as a number of bulbs will cascade across the front lawn of the Museum. However, visitors will get a particularly good view of Field of Light by walking in the garden itself, or from the Garden Café on the ground floor of the new extension, which looks out over the back garden and where the reflections will shimmer in the glass walls of the café. The Cafe is open until 7pm for mulled wine and cakes, drinks and nibbles.

Bruce Munro says, “I hope the Holburne’s visitors and Christmas shoppers in Bath will enjoy Field of Light. I think it is a piece with universal appeal and I’ll be happy if it makes people smile at Christmas time.”

Sponsored by
Bath Future Plus
The Framing Workshop
benugo

Supported by
The Roper Family Charitable Trust

For visitor information Tel

Ends

For further media information and images please contact:
Katie Jenkins
The Holburne Museum
Tel email k.jenkins@bath.ac.uk

Notes

Lighting artist Bruce Munro first created a Field of Light at the Brilliant! exhibition at the V&A Museum in London in 2004, and went on to create other versions including a 10-acre display at Long Knoll Field in Wiltshire. This piece has not been seen since it gained international renown at the Eden Project in Cornwall in 2008/2009.
www.brucemunro.co.uk

Bath’s Holburne Museum re-opened in May this year after ambitious renovations, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and boasting a glorious new extension by Eric Parry Architects. The Holburne has fast gained a reputation as one of a number of outstanding regional museums in the UK.

The Museum is set within the park of Sydney Gardens, an eighteenth-century Pleasure Garden. The building was originally designed as the Sydney Hotel, the gateway to the Pleasure Gardens and the entertainments of music, fireworks, supper boxes, labyrinth and a grotto.

The Museum houses an important art collection formed by Sir William Holburne in the nineteenth-century, which includes paintings, silver, sculpture, furniture and porcelain of both national and international significance. Artists represented in the collection include Gainsborough, Guardi, Stubbs, Ramsay and Zoffany.

Current Exhibitions:
Gainsborough’s Landscapes: Themes and Variations
24 September 2011 to 22 January 2012 £6.95 / concessions
And
The View from Here: new landscape photographs by Mark Edwards
24 September 2011 to 8 January 2012 Free

Forthcoming exhibitions:
Louis Ghost Chair (21 January to 15 April 2012)
Art of Arrangement: Photography and the Still Life Tradition
(11 February to 7 May 2012)

The Holburne Museum
Great Pulteney Street
Bath BA2 4DB

Open daily, free admission
10am to 5pm (11am to 5pm Sundays and Bank Holidays)
Closed 24 to 26 December and 1 January
Tel email holburne@bath.ac.uk

 

Published on: 01/11/2011