This self-effacing \u201cPom\u201d is fully aware that his choice of canvas is a sensitive one, with a well-documented history of white men trampling willy-nilly over its sacred sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t just be a Westerner coming here to impose ideas on this landscape \u2013 this is the Anangu\u2019s [the traditional owners\u2019] landscape,\u201d says Munro.<\/p>\n
Munro describes his negotiations with Anangu elders as a \u201cgentle, four-year discourse\u201d, where he tried to convey the spirit and scope of the project. But try explaining to anyone why you want to dump four football fields\u2019 worth (49,000 square metres) of changing-hued frosted lights in the outback.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to visualize and abstract \u2013 you really have to see it to understand,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
![\"Bruce](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bruce-Munro.jpg\")
Bruce Munro, the man of light: Creator and artist behind Field of Light, Uluru (photo: Mark Pickthall).<\/p><\/div>\n
The Anangu community seem to have embraced the installation, helping to clear the land using traditional fire-stick farming techniques, and translating the name into their language, Pitjantjatjara. Tellingly, elders also asked Munro if they could do their own interpretation of the lights down the track.<\/p>\n
As of its opening night back in April 2016, the Field of Light<\/em> is the largest iteration of Munro\u2019s immersive light displays that have graced various landscapes including a field behind his house in southwest England and various sites in the US. He insists, however, that Uluru is something of a homecoming for him as an artist. Back in 1992, on his farewell trip after living in Australia for eight years, Munro and his partner finally made it to the Red Centre<\/a> (only just) in a \u201cbanger\u201d of an old Toyota Corona.<\/p>\n He couldn\u2019t have predicted as he sketched the idea into his notebook, while camping in Uluru, the unprecedented demand his \u2018swan song\u2019 would create.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounds like a clich\u00e9, but seeing Uluru actually changed my life,\u201d he says. \u201cThat inspiration gave me a chance to work full-time as an artist.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think that the Anangu understand that I have no ulterior motive \u2013 I just want to express how this place has changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n The impact of seeing Uluru inspired Bruce Munro’s Field of Light. (Image: Tourism-NT\/ Bronte Stephens)<\/p><\/div>\n To appreciate art that defines itself only in relation to darkness, you\u2019ll have to prepare to become one of the nocturnal desert mammals; immerse yourself in the desert before the sun kisses the outback horizon and wander through it well after sunset.<\/p>\n From the dune-top viewing area in daylight, the Field of Light merely resembles an incongruous, glistening patch of wild dandelions among the spinifex-rich deep red earth. Stubborn desert oaks spectate in wonder.<\/p>\n The Field of Light disappears in daylight. (Image: Katie Carlin)<\/p><\/div>\n At dusk, glass of Champagne in hand, the installation barely draws your eye from The Rock\u2019s awesome presence (it\u2019s located just outside the national park, a respectable distance from Uluru).<\/p>\n Then at twilight, the splendour of the outback stars are intent on pilfering the show. For the Field of Light<\/em>, it must be like coming on stage after The Beatles have warmed up the crowd for you.<\/p>\n Immersed at eye level is where you want to be after dark. Wander out of the blackness into the impromptu avenues that dissect rhythmic waves of mutable hues, to a chorus of chirping crickets, and accompanied by a tender desert breeze.<\/p>\n It feels like you\u2019ve landed in a psychedelic Netherlands bulb field \u2013 subtle violets, soft electric blues and limes, gentle ochres, spectral whites.<\/p>\n The Field of Light has become one of the most popular Uluru attractions.<\/p><\/div>\n Local artist-in-residence Heather Dunn underlines the futility of comparing the lights with the \u201cnatural atmospherics\u201d of the desert.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Field of Light is only a complement to a grand space; to the transitory things that happen to Uluru, the colour and change,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s only when Uluru goes to sleep, that this thing takes over on the ground while the stars do above. At first, you think, \u2018oh, yeah, there it is; it\u2019s not doing much\u2019, but it starts to build, like an orchestra. Then you get among it!\u201d<\/p>\n It is futile to compare the Field of Light with the wonder of Uluru. (Image: Katie Carlin)<\/p><\/div>\n Around 380 kilometres of crisscrossed fibre-optic cables creep along the ground; tendrils of silvery light, a confusion of trippy snail trails.<\/p>\n Munro chose a colour palette sympathetic to the desert, omitting deep greens because he saw none way back in 1992. Instead, the spindly stems breathe and sway through a sympathetic desert spectrum of ochre, deep violet, blue and white.<\/p>\n Not only is this his first solar-powered work (well, there are not many power outlets in the desert), but it\u2019s also \u201ca lot less designed\u201d and geometric than its forerunners; a concession to the untamable desert scape.<\/p>\n The Field of Light is coloured a desert spectrum of ochre, deep violet, blue and white. (Image: Katie Carlin)<\/p><\/div>\n But back in daylight, with some truly local knowledge, you realise that this most modern of art installations is not just sitting alone on a barren desert, but actually on the cusp of a monumental outdoor gallery.<\/p>\n Literally, hundreds of Anangu rock paintings and etchings perch among the crags and nooks of Uluru and nearby Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), embedded physically and metaphysically into the landscape and lore.<\/p>\n Each on its own seems sparse and simple, surely no match for the lights, but collectively they weave an immensely bigger picture.<\/p>\n For Anangu art is about survival in the desert landscape. (Tourism NT\/ Kate Flowers)<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cArt is about survival out here,\u201d says Anangu man Leroy Lester, from Wintjiri Arts & Museum. \u201cIn places like Kakadu,<\/a> they\u2019ve got plenty of food so they had lots of time to paint things like big barramundis with all the organs. We had no time for that.<\/p>\n \u201cOut here, especially when it\u2019s dry, you\u2019d rather drink the water than mix ochre with it. The main art was body paint and ceremonies \u2013 but even ceremonies were cancelled in times of drought.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Leroy, art out here acts like a billboard spruiking Tjukurpa (creation stories). The Rock is a physical embodiment of it and the Anangu read them both like a scripture and as a daily life roadmap.<\/p>\n \u201cThe paintings might show a big lizard, so everyone who\u2019s looking for a big lizard to eat can find one. Or so you can find a waterhole.\u201d<\/p>\n While Uluru<\/a> is primarily just a powerful muse for Munro, he does relate to one principle of Anangu art and culture; a sense that the past informs the present.<\/p>\n \u201cIt intrigues me that the Anangu have an interwoven concept of time that reflects mine: of time past, when I first saw Uluru; of time present, the exhibition now; and time future, how once this has been swept away, the living memory that goes into people\u2019s hearts and minds.\u201d<\/p>\n The living memory is enough to sate Munro, aware that the Field of Light<\/em> is barely a grain of sand in Uluru\u2019s grand narrative. \u201cI actually like the fact it\u2019s ephemeral \u2013 you can flick it on and off.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s not the kind of artist to scribble his name on a tree trunk or cast a bronze statue (and much of the installation will be recycled, too). \u201cUltimately, I think we\u2019re all just pushing ideas through time.\u201d<\/p>\n The last glow of the Field of Light before it disappears with the sun. (Image: Katie Carlin)<\/p><\/div>\n The Field of Light<\/em> (also named Tili Wiru Tjuta Nyakutjaku or \u2018looking at lots of beautiful lights\u2019 in the local language) is now showing indefinitely.<\/p>\n It is currently open for tours with<\/a> a Field of Light pass ($45). The four-and-a-half-hour, three-course A Night at Field of Light Dinner<\/a> inspired by bush tucker costs $280 per person (with Australian wines and beers as well). Other options include a Field of Light Star Pass<\/a> with viewings of the work and outback canapes with sparkling wine or beer.<\/p>\n Ayers Rock Resort<\/a> offers an array of family-friendly accommodation options including the five-star Sails in the Desert. Book ahead to go glamping at Longitude 131.<\/a><\/p>\n Longitude 131’s collection of pavilions provides jaw-dropping views of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. (Image: Tourism NT and George Apostolidis)<\/p><\/div>\n Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin fly regularly to Ayers Rock Airport, Uluru.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Field of Light, one of the largest art installation’s in Australia’s history<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":243523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"article-deals.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[1126],"tags":[1481,1569,6321,4479,4542,4436,4748,5140,5715,4566,1051,4609,4617],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Uluru](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Uluru-at-sunset-Tourism-NTBronte-Stephens.jpg\")
Seeing the Field of Light at sunrise or sunset<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Filed-of-light-disappears-with-the-sun-Katie-Carlin.jpg\")
![\"Field](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/the-magical-field-of-light.jpg\")
Field of Light vs Uluru<\/h2>\n
![\"Field](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Field-of-Light-at-dawn-Katie-Carlin.jpg\")
The concept behind the Field of Lights<\/h2>\n
![\"Close](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Close-up-of-Field-of-Lights-in-the-pre-dawn-light-Katie-Carlin.jpg\")
Anangu art and culture<\/h2>\n
![\"Close](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Close-up-Uluru-Tourism-NTKate-Flowers.jpg\")
The Field of Light is a grain of sand in Uluru\u2019s grand narrative<\/h2>\n
![\"Field](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Filed-of-Light-as-the-sun-rises-katie-carlin.jpg\")
Field of Light, Uluru details<\/h2>\n
Playing there<\/h3>\n
Staying there<\/h3>\n
![\"Longitude](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Luxury-Uluru-stay-with-Longitude-131-Tourism-NT-George-Apostolidis.jpg\")
Getting there<\/h3>\n