Mark Pickhold
A view of Field of Light.
From June through September of this year, Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pa., was transformed into a magical lightscape due to the creative imaginings of artist Bruce Munro, who is known for his inventive explorations of light. At Longwood, which was originally purchased by Pierre S. du Pont in 1906, a full range of Munro’s work was on display. Nine installations of various scales and materials including Field of Light, celebrated different areas within the 1,077-acre site that is home to 20 indoor and 20 outdoor gardens, meadows, and woodlands. Munro, long intrigued by the play of light and shadow, first saw how light could be a medium of artistic expression after graduating from art school in the United Kingdom and moving to Australia in the mid-1980s for work. “For me, light is an aesthetic medium to express ideas,” Munro says. “I see spaces for what they are and try to apply the appropriate lighting aesthetic to make the space sing.” And sing the work does at Longwood. “It’s enabled people to see Longwood in a whole new way,” garden director Paul Redman says. “The work is about storytelling and uncovering the different layers of the garden.” The overall project, Light: Installations by Bruce Munro, took 14 months to plan and prototype and another two months to install. (Dismantling will take about two weeks and most of the materials will be recycled or reused for future projects.) Each of the installations has its own interaction with the landscape and creates a different viewing experience for the visitor, which is further enhanced depending on the time of day and the weather conditions. Surrounded by the summer heat and a symphony of crickets providing their own sound track, Munro’s work is meditative as it transcends the boundaries of time.
