Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens to host,Bruce Munro: Light at Franklin Park Conservatory, by internationally renowned artist Bruce Munro, scheduled to open September 25.
Exhibit of large-scale light installations is the British artist’s third exhibition in the United States.
Acclaimed British artist Bruce Munro will debut an exhibition of light-based installations and gallery works at Columbus, Ohio’s Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens on September 25, 2013. The exhibition, Bruce Munro: Light at Franklin Park Conservatory, will introduce work never before seen in the U.S.
British Artist Bruce Munro to Exhibit Light-Based Works At Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
This solo exhibition will be Munro’s third in the U.S. The first in 2012 at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pa. drew critical acclaim and hundreds of thousands of visitors. Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art in Nashville opened the second U.S. exhibition in May, 2013.
Munro’s Light will transform the Conservatory’s 83,000 square feet of indoor environments and three outdoor courtyards, creating a captivating nighttime experience. Ten large-scale site-specific installations will be displayed, four of them new works created uniquely for the Conservatory. Field of Light, perhaps one of Munro’s most iconic artworks, consists of nearly 3,000 lighted glass spheres springing from a courtyard garden. In the Bonsai Courtyard, Water-Towers, monumental structures made of plastic water bottles, glow and change color to synchronized music.
“Bruce Munro’s Light is another exciting chapter in the Conservatory’s decade-long program of providing visually inspiring, world-class art that complements our unique spaces and plant collections,” said Bruce A. Harkey, Executive Director of Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. “We are privileged to be able to introduce these immersive artworks to Columbus, Central Ohio and the region. We are confident that Light will provide our visitors with a pleasurable, beautiful, engaging, and memorable experience.”
The exhibition will immerse visitors in a grand experience with nearly 60 miles of optical fiber used to illuminate the exhibition. In addition, more than 5,700 plastic bottles, nearly 3,000 glass spheres, and 48 light projectors are included in Light. More than 4,000 man hours went into creating Light in the U.K., and an additional 1,400 hours went into installing
Bruce Munro in front of one of his works at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.
the exhibition at the Conservatory.
Wiltshire-based Bruce Munro is an installation artist working with light in all of its forms. His work has been exhibited at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the 13th century gothic Salisbury Cathedral, and in an annual exhibition residency at Waddesdon Manor, of the de Rothschild family estate. The Holburne Museum in Bath, Kensington Palace in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City have also exhibited his work. Munro is best known for immersive large-scale mixed-media installations based on his interest in the medium of light. Recording ideas and images in sketchbooks has been his practice for over 30 years; by this means he has captured his responses to stimuli such as music, literature, science and the world around him for reference, reflection and subject matter. This tendency has been combined with a liking for components and an inventive urge for reuse, coupled with career training in manufacture of light. As a result, Munro produces both monumental temporary experiential artworks as well as intimate story-pieces.
“Every garden has a unique feature,” Munro said. “This exhibition is more about a voyage around the garden rather than a series of stops and starts. It’s important that people take away the whole memory of their visit…the sum of the whole being greater than the individual parts.”
Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens will offer this special evening experience from 5 until 11 pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and select Saturdays. Tickets are available for purchase online. Conservatory members will receive half-off admission for this special engagement. The Conservatory will maintain its regular daytime hours and seasonal exhibitions during the run of Light, which ends on February 8, 2014.
Franklin Park Conservatory – John F. Wolfe Palm House
The Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens offers botanical collections, art and nature-based exhibitions, plant shows, and educational programs for all ages. Situated in an 88-acre urban park, the Conservatory features the historic 1895 John F. Wolfe Palm House and 83,000 square feet of glasshouses, classrooms, and meeting and event spaces. The Conservatory owns a signature collection of glass artwork by Dale Chihuly. Light Raiment II, a permanent installation by internationally recognized light artist James Turrell, illuminates the John F. Wolfe Palm House every evening from dusk until dawn.
Interior of the Franklin Park Conservatory – John F. Wolfe Palm House
Interior of the Franklin Park Conservatory – John F. Wolfe Palm House
Franklin Park Conservatory – John F. Wolfe Palm House
More information about Bruce Munro: Light at Franklin Park Conservatory is available online at: http://www.fpconservatory.org/light. Further information about the artist Bruce Munro can be found at http://www.brucemunro.co.uk.
Filed under: Museums & Exhibitions Tagged: Bonsai Courtyard, Bruce Munro, Bruce Munro: Light at Franklin Park Conservatory, Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art, Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Longwood Gardens, Water-Towers