MUST-SEE: The amazing new Field of Light honouring our Anzacs

If you haven’t heard about the Field of Light Uluru, you must have been living under a rock for the last couple of years. It’s an extraordinary light-based installation that’s proved so popular, its been been extended until December 2020.

And now, a new Field of Light has just been launched, in Western Australia. To mark the centenary of the end of World War I, and to honour the Anzacs and other Australians who have died in the theatre of war, a scenic and truly special spot has been transformed into Field of Light: Avenue of Honour.

Thousands of glass spheres will glow in Albany, on WA’s south coast, marking the site where tens of thousands troops departed Australia for the Great War. It’s exquisitely beautiful and profoundly moving, and is sure to captivate everyone who visits between now and, fittingly, Anzac Day 2019.

Travel at 60 spoke to Bruce Munro, the renowned UK artist responsible for this unforgettable installation, on the eve of its launch…

How did you come to choose the Avenue of Honour in Albany as the location?

“I was told there was an opportunity, but it wasn’t a foregone conclusion, so the first thing to do was to come over and visit. I went down [to Albany] and looked at all the possible areas: the Avenue of Honour on Mount Clarence was a no-brainer. The topography was right, the flora was right, and I just thought it was very poignant and very relevant. There are commemorative plaques planted under all the trees, with details of people who have given their lives in the theatre of war. For many of them, Albany was their last glimpse of home as they left Australian shores. There’s a lovely peacefulness under the trees, and you can walk up and down the Avenue, which gives people a chance to really get their thoughts in the right place.”

The name’s so perfect as well – it’s like it was just meant to be.

“It was serendipity. I was kind of nervous about doing another Field of Light installation in Australia – I didn’t want to over-egg the pudding! But when this opportunity came up, it was such a different sentiment to Uluru. Both express communication and the positive side of the human condition, but the Avenue of Honour was really a commemorative legacy. I hope it’s a legacy to say, ‘No more war – we need to focus our minds on peace and reconciliation’. I know that sounds completely and utterly unrealistic and naive, but we’ve got to take a stand on these things. When you think about all those young people, particularly the Anzacs, who never got home again – their lives shouldn’t have been lost in vain. I think it’s very hard for people today to appreciate that the reason we live in the world that we do is because of what they did.”

Field of Light: Avenue of Honour has a much shorter lifespan than your Uluru installation – is there any chance it will be extended?

“Uluru was an extraordinary situation. It was really only meant to be for a year and the fact that it’s gone on has been a complete surprise. Uluru is the only place in Australia I could possibly let that happen. The nature of the installation is meant to be ephemeral, but the reason it will stay at Uluru for as long as it’s wanted is because that’s where Field of Light [an installation that’s been exhibited all over the world] was inspired. I feel it’s almost like Uluru is its birthplace.

“But the Avenue of Honour is very much about commemorating 100 years, and I think that it would be wrong to keep it any longer. It feels right for a period of time and then it should just be left in the memory. I think life itself is moments, isn’t it? And that’s what I love about it – the idea that something is here for a moment and then it’s gone”

Want to see this beautiful new attraction for yourself? Give us a call on 1300 414 198 and we’ll help you find a great rate on flights and accommodation.

How did the Field of Light concept come about?

“The Field of Light is a particular group of work that I started in 2004. The idea was inspired from a journey to Uluru. I got this very visceral feeling when I was there. I was 32 and I wasn’t looking out for a spiritual change – I wasn’t trying to find anything. I was just going about my normal daily job of sketching and scribbling down feelings and thoughts, and I got this very powerful reaction to the place. I was quite cynical, I thought Uluru was going to be another tourist destination, but it was everything but. And that changed my whole direction. Through my life I’d been making these jottings about places and spaces and how it felt in those places, and Uluru made me think that’s what I want to try and create or describe. And my way of describing is with light and materials. I mean, if I’d been a better painter, I might have produced paintings, but I’m a crap painter!

“It took me 12 years to get the first one made in a field at my home. We saved our pennies and had a mortgage on our house, and some of that, I have to admit, went on creating this work. It became a bit of an obsession. I’d been thinking about it since 1992 and then my father died in 1999, and I thought, you’ve got to get on and do it. So we put it in our field. We lived in the middle of nowhere and we didn’t tell anyone about it. But people saw it, and they’d go back and tell other people, and then, lo and behold, we had a bit of interest. I thought a lot of people would just go, ‘What the bloody hell are you doing, you idiot?’ – but the reaction was really positive. It seemed to move people.”

Tell us about the volunteers.

“I can’t really claim credit for the volunteers, and nor should I – that goes to FORM [the cultural organisation in Perth that commissioned Field of Light: Avenue of Honour in partnership with the City of Albany]. I can’t tell you how brilliant they’ve been. They set up these brilliant cultural events which are all about using art as a tool to change the world in a positive way, and they do it so effectively – they’re people who get down to making things happen in a very lovely way. They’re used to working with artists, but they’ve also got this idea of how to connect with other communities and organisations to make something come to fruition. So FORM found all the volunteers. There were 50 volunteers [who helped install the lights] and many of them have a direct connection with the Avenue of Honour; forebears who lost their lives in a theatre of war. There’s something very poignant about that.”

Do you have any viewing tips, or is your advice to literally just turn up and walk around the site?

“Exactly what you said – just enjoy it. I think it’s more interesting to not give people direction about how they should feel or view it. Hopefully people will see it in a positive way, but you’ve got to be prepared that some people won’t get it or won’t like it.”

Surely not?!

“You’d be surprised – and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. What I think is wrong is when people are negative just for the sake of being negative. That always saddens me, because it makes me feel that they’ve got nothing better to do with their life other than to be critical. Fortunately, very few people tend to take that line! I make no bones about it – this is completely from my heart. The joy is when you see people coming together with smiles on their faces, there’s nothing nicer than that. And again, that’s nothing to do with me as an individual, it’s to do with a huge number of people. I can’t stress that enough – it’s everyone at FORM, all the volunteers, the local people of Albany, my team and the people who are, in a way, the most relevant: the people who come and visit.”

How did you come to work with lights in the first place?

“I studied painting and sculpture when I was a kid – I did a fine arts degree, and then spent a couple of years in London working in a gallery and doing lots of odd jobs. I came over to Australia in the mid-1980s, at the age of 24. I came on a working holiday and literally fell in love with Sydney. It was such an amazing change from the UK at that time. I didn’t have any qualifications other than a fine arts degree, and ended up experimenting with lights. I found some in a shop in the centre of Sydney and I started from there, on the floor of my flat. I was living with an Aussie and had an Aussie girlfriend at the time, and I started a little business. Then I met my wife, Serena – she was a Pom as well – and we lived together in Sydney. And I just kept at the lights. But I didn’t really think of them as art – it was more like industrial lighting. I’d said to myself ‘you’re too young to do art, you haven’t got any life experience’. I just thought it was a very self-indulgent sort of thing at that age – to try and make art, so what I really did was learn about the craft. But I always kept my sketchbooks going.”

What are the lights made of?

“The materials are very simple – they’re glass spheres, fibre optic cables, acrylic stems (and spike), and a very low-wattage LED projector. We’ve taken power from the grid, but the whole of the installation at the Avenue of Honour probably uses less power than somebody’s kitchen – it’s a total of about 1800 watts. Actually, it’s more than a kitchen – it’s probably a domestic house.”

Being made of glass, do you have to bring spares, do you have lots of breakages?

“We get one or two, but they’re pretty robust. The stems are designed so that they sway in the wind. I know it sounds a bit careless, but the first time I did this, a friend of mine who was involved in manufacturing the spikes, said: ‘Bruce, have you done any field tests on these?’. And I just went, ‘Nah, it’ll be right’. In England at that time everybody had a reason not to do something. There was a very negative feeling in the UK (this was when things were very tough, in the early 80s), but over here it was like… ‘just have a crack’. It’s what I love about Oz – that ‘she’ll be right, mate’ spirit. When I arrived here I had this idea [about lights], and I’d talk to someone and they’d say, ‘Yeah, go on mate – go and make one’. And I just thought it was so bloody refreshing. Sunlight, and people being optimistic about getting on with life – that was just right for me at that age. And the energy… I can remember taking a ferry across from Circular Quay to Manly and I just felt like I was going to take off. I remember my old man back in the UK saying, ‘Thank God, you’re in the right place’.”

It’s so nice to hear that Australia has played a role in this incredible career and your beautiful work.

“I owe this country so bloody much. Any chance to come back and do work here is a joy.”

Field of Light: Avenue of Honour runs until Anzac Day 2019. Call our travel experts on 1300 414 198 to arrange your Field of Light holiday.