Time & Place included a debut of Munro’s C-scales as a solo response to the volume of the barn gallery. The exhibition included a UK première of Munro’s most celebrated work Field of Light – a field of illuminated stems that bloom to gentle rhythms of light as darkness falls, the most celebrated of which is installed at Uluru (formerly Ayres Rock) at the epicentre of indigenous culture in Australia’s red desert.
Bruce Munro’s work takes ordinary and mundane materials such as hay bales, water bottles and CDs and invites people to look at them in a different way. Many works on show were inspired by his time spent in Australia and refer directly to a particular memory, time or place, though not explicitly mentioned. It is through a process of repetition and ordering that his works become dramatic backdrops to mesmerising, mysterious and immersive displays that transcend time.
For this, his largest presentation of works in the UK, C-Scales, an audio-visual installation comprising a dynamic three-dimensional, immersive experience made from a shimmering sea of CDs and DVDs that is inspired by Sydney Harbour. Abstract visual sequences, projected on to their surfaces, created an animated and immersive rendition of a Monet or a Howard Hodgkin. The light was reflected onto the interior façades and the architecture of the surrounding barn, with an enhanced audio track, that included sounds from the shoreline, inspired by Barangaroo in Sydney, Australia.
Works placed in the landscape included Moon Harvest – a site specific installation inspired by the myth and romance associated with the phrase ‘Harvest Moon’ with lunar visuals projected on to wrapped hay bales; and Temperate Zone, which was inspired by an ingenious air conditioning unit created by the indigenous Indians of the Sonoran Desert.
