Burnaway

British artist Bruce Munro’s latest installation, Light, intersects manicured hills and Seuss shaped hedges with 20,000 pulsating glass spheres, on view at Nashville’s Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art [May 24-November 10, 2013]. From LED springs undulating across a bed of bamboo to illuminated globes hovering above the reflecting pool, Munro responds to the elegance of Cheekwood’s rows of flowers and lawns with prismatic forms of light that are nothing short of magical.

Using 160 miles of glowing fiber optic cable and over 100 light projectors, Munro strategically curates Cheekwood’s 55 acre estate into a twinkling wonderland. At the garden’s entrance, the playful Water-Towers installation fuses light and sound. Viewers weave through 40 pieces composed of LED infused plastic bottles that fade into different colors alongside the changing melody of ambient instrumentals. The garden proceeds into a tunneled awning, webbed with vines, that is sprinkled with fairy lights and continues into a vast field of glowing orbs that extends in every direction.

Munro’s large-scale, light-based installations center on his interest in the shared human experience. Cheekwood’s Light successfully couples a playful garden exploration with a larger ethereal experience. The continuity of rippling light that stretches as far as the eye can see creates a dream-like environment that is not to be missed.

-Alyssa Rabun

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