The grounds of Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire are sparkling a little brighter this December thanks to a new exhibition by Bruce Munro.
The acclaimed light artist (He’s at facebook/brucemunrostudio) has six sculptural installations on the grounds, including Water Towers at Waddesdon (the featured image, by Mark Pickthall), which was first shown in the cloister of Salisbury Cathedral and has been re-imagined for Waddesdon.
Water Towers is a series of two-metre high structures, constructed from recycled, two-litre plastic bottles illuminated with optical fibres. These fibres change colour in time to a musical soundtrack and create a corridor of light and sound.
Tepees (2013) was originally conceived while trying to invent a device to keep foxes away from chickens (Bruce Munro’s wife’s chickens). It also manifests itself as a kind of mystical “Wild West” settlement as the forms appear and disappear among the trees.
Brass Monkeys (2012-2013) takes it name from the brass triangles that supported stacks of iron cannon-balls on 18th century war ships (hence the saying “cold enough to freeze the balls of a Brass Monkey”) and is a visually arresting free-standing sculpture comprised of large, clear spheres stacked in a 2.5m pyramid form.
Inside these are smaller spheres containing colour-changing fibre-optics that radiate varying shades of blue and white light.
One of the works created specifically for the exhibition at Waddesdon Manor is Parliament of Owls (2013), which features a totemic “tree” on the branches of which perch 36 pairs of blinking owl-like glass eyes. Illuminated by flickering LED light sources the orbs wink at passers by.
Mynah Words (2013) is another bird-inspired piece, installed in Waddesdon’s Aviary. Twelve ultra-violet tubes suspended from the grotto ceiling act as perches for a series of laser-cut “speech bubbles”.
The glow cast from the tubes light up coded epithets, which are a response to the chattering of the Rothschild Mynahs, an endangered species named after the naturalist Walter, 2nd Lord Rothschild, which are successfully bred at Waddesdon.
The final installation is the spectacular River of Light (2013), is a re-imagining of Munro’s iconic earlier work, Field of Light (2004-2013), which brought him to international prominence when it was first shown.
Around 6,500 glass spheres rising from the ground on slender stems are arranged in a new serpentine format and, as they shimmer through a range of subtle hues, appear to flow and ripple like a river, winding its way down Waddesdon’s Daffodil Valley.
Winter Light at Waddesdon: Bruce Munro runs until January 1 2014.
