There aren’t many people who’ve had the pleasure of walking through an orchestra. Thanks to the childhood fantasy of acclaimed light artist Bruce Munro, you can do just that at the Fibre Optic Symphonic Orchestra.
When the sky is clear in the outback at night, the stars shine so brightly it feels as though you can reach out and brush your fingers against the vast blanket of dazzling diamonds.
As I walk through the Perry Sandhills – just outside the town of Wentworth – it’s one of those nights. And not only do I have stars mesmerising me, but an orchestra of light, shining bright.
The vibrations from the string instruments front and centre give me goosebumps, the wind and brass instruments make my heart beat faster, and the percussion melodies put a spring in my step.
The score, created by acclaimed British composer Nainita Desai, is emanating from 240 speakers hidden in the bases of 80 towering Hills Hoist-like sculptures glowing brilliantly in the darkness. Thousands of fibre optic strings fade in and out, colours shooting up, down and across the main columns, then out across the hoists’ arms in time with the rising and falling of the hypnotic sonatas.
The enchanting symphony under the stars has hundreds of people walking around as though we’re all under a spell, blindly following the Pied Piper into the middle of nowhere. If this sounds like something out of a dream, that’s because it is.
“I had this dream as a child…an idea really, that I wanted to bring to life,” says light artist Bruce Munro. “I would often think – why can’t I walk through an orchestra? Wouldn’t that be amazing? I realise that there are practicalities as to why you can’t – such as bumping into musicians and disturbing things – but I wanted to bring that childhood fantasy to life.”
Bruce is from England, but he travelled to Australia in his early twenties, met his wife Serena in Sydney, and spent many years exploring our sunburnt country. He formed an affinity with Australia and the couple vowed to come back. With this affinity came a love of iconic Australian things, including the Hills Hoist.
“Every Australian who grew up with a Hills Hoist has memories from time spent around it in the backyard,” says Bruce. “Summer barbecues around it, swinging on the arms of it with your mates. Using it as a stump in a cricket match. It’s such an iconic Australian invention that means so much to so many people.”
Another of Bruce’s now iconic light installation is Field of Light Uluru. Also based in the desert, and just like FOSO, it creates a profound experience for anyone who experiences it.
Field of Light opened in 2016, with the dramatic, sprawling display inspired by the desert’s energy and the vibrant colours of the landscape.
“It was based on the idea that dormant seeds bloom after rain, which I envisioned as glowing, flower-like stems at night.” Bruce said. ”Honestly, being there at Uluru was life-changing for me. I felt so bloody alive!”
What many people might not know is that Bruce’s first Field of Light installation was created in 2004 in a field behind his family home in Wiltshire, England. After that life-changing visit to Uluru, he wanted to recreate the sense of magic he felt whilst there.
This love of colour and landscapes was with Bruce from a young age, and he has spent the last two decades continuing to push the boundaries of what he can achieve with light, and now music.
“My grandfather was very musical, and I enjoyed all sorts of music, but I wasn’t musically talented,” Bruce says with a laugh. “I loved listening to music and trying to understand it, and I also have a strong memory of my mother taking 35mm slides out of Kodak box and popping them into one of those viewer machines.
I’d never been to many of the places on those slides, but I found it so fascinating – that I was looking at people and places as though through a Lilliputian stained-glass window. Here were these magical little worlds of light captured on slides.”
Bruce tried his hand at painting and sculpture and spent years working with an agency in a creative capacity, but it was his father’s death that pushed him into the work he now does, and the life he lives.
“When my father passed away, I thought: ‘Right, I’d better get on with things,” Bruce says. “I didn’t want to make art for the sake of it, and I didn’t want it to be about ego. Life is all about those little joyful experiences we have –no matter how simple or small they may be – that make us feel connected to a moment. I want to build a visual narrative of those moments. They don’t have to be connected in a certain way, because that’s life.”
Walking through those red sand hills in the outback, it occurred to me that although FOSO is such a complex installation that will inspire everyone in different ways – there’s also a beautifully simplistic take on it: FOSO is a visual narrative of music that has the power to create endless special moments.
For tickets, visit mildura.com/lights.
To read more about Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura, click here.
Rex flies to Mildura, which is just a 30-minute drive from the FOSO installation. Book your tickets here and check out the route map below.
