The Salcombe Field of Light has been donated to the RNLI and our community by the world renowned artist Bruce Munro to raise funds for the RNLI’s 200th year.
The Salcombe Field of Light spans 35,000 square metres of steep Devon hillside opposite Salcombe town, on the edge of the estuary. The art installation features an array of 20,000 lowlight, fibre-optic stemmed lights that illuminate the landscape with a slow, subtle change of hue.
"Field of Light was originally conceived in 1992 during a trip through central Australia with my fiancée, now wife. The red desert had an incredible feeling of energy: ideas radiated from it along with the heat. I was struck by the transformative nature of the desert. It was an infertile, barren place - until the rain came - and then it burst into life and bloomed like a veritable Eden. I sketched thoughts of creating a sculpture on a landscape scale, incongruous in size and location. 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.
The idea that landed in my sketchbook kept on nagging at me to be done. The very first version was sown in the field behind my home in England in 2004, twelve years after its inspiration. Since then, it has appeared for short spans of time in locations across the world: always different, an organic piece that has stretched across fields, along city parks and through forested land. I am very proud to say that it has received both critical and popular recognition.
The installation was inspired by an ancient landscape and I hope that it inspires a sense of shared existence, of being part of life’s essential pattern." Bruce Munro.
Salcombe Field of Light is on show opposite Salcombe Harbour from 5th October 2024 to 10th January 2025.
