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50,000 Solar Powered Bulbs Illuminate the Australian Desert in Bruce Munro’s Field of Light Installation

All images courtesy of Bruce Munro

Over 50,000 bulbs light up an expanse of Australia’s Red Centre desert near Ayers Rock in an installation about the size of four football fields. The solar powered work, Field of Light Uluru, was produced by artist Bruce Munro who conceived of the idea while visiting Uluru in 1992. Twelve years later he created its first iteration in a field behind his home, and it has since moved the work around to several different sights across the United Kingdom, United States, and Mexico.

Field of Light was a project that refused to leave the artist’s sketchbook. “I saw in my mind a landscape of illuminated stems that, like the dormant seed in a dry desert, quietly wait until darkness falls, under a blazing blanket of southern stars, to bloom with gentle rhythms of light,” said Munro.

The British artist is best known for his light installations which often contain components numbering in the thousands. These large works refer to his own experience as being a tiny element to life’s larger pattern, and employ light as a way to tap into a more emotional response with his viewers.

Profits for the installation will benefit the local community. The Anangu tribe have named the piece Tili Wiru Tjuta Nyakutjaku in Pitjantjatjara which translates to “looking at lots of beautiful lights.”

You can visit the expansive installation yourself starting April 1st and running through March of 2017.