Bruce Munro: From Sunshine Road at Heide Museum of Modern Art

Visit Heide Museum of Modern Art this winter and fall in love with the spectacular exhibition by internationally renowned English-Australian artist Bruce Munro. Titled Bruce Munro: From Sunshine, the exclusive body of works is finally open to the public after being subject to delay spanning the better part of two years. 

The first museum exhibition in Australia to celebrate Bruce Munro, From Sunshine Road features a collection of more than 20 iconic works across Heide’s galleries and grassy outdoor grounds. At the essence of this wonderful collection is light. It explores the artist’s relationship between light and time, and when the two are linked, evokes memory that can capture the past. 

Among the iconic site-specific installations is ‘Candent Spring’, which pays tribute to Munro’s beloved ‘Field of Light’ at Uluṟu. At the centre is a curving arrangement of abstracted clock faces, or stainless-steel waterlilies scored with codes and patterns, illustrating notions of past, present, infinity and the speed of light. Surrounding the “time machine” are large clusters of ‘fireflies,’ cascading optical fibre forms that visitors can walk through as they come to life at dusk creating a “virtual fire” to warm the soul. I checked out ‘Candent Spring’ after dark (7pm on grizzly mid-July night) and found the experience soothing and meditative. 

Back inside, ‘Ferryman’s Crossing I’ is Munro’s reflections on Herman Hesse’s 1922 novel Siddharta. Constructed from recycled CDs, the luminescent river is amplified by light projections in Morse code spelling out the an extract from the novel: 

The river is everywhere at once … everywhere at the same time. And  that for it there is only the present, not the shadow called the future … And when I learned that, I looked at my life, and it too was a river. Nothing was, nothing will be: everything is, everything has its being and is present.

‘Light is my medium, and a beautiful quality of light is that is captures the ephemeral. This illusive, seemingly no physical quality has a spiritual essence about it and makes it ideal as a medium to express abstract concepts such as emotions and connection and I felt an instant connection to the environs of Heide,’ says artist Bruce Munro. 

Other highlights in the exhibition include two large-scale works both titled ‘Uluṟu’. The images are comprised of carefully ordered compositions of vinyl dots derived from photgraphic panoramas taken by the artist at the ancient rock, then pixelated. Munro’s use of the spiral, a universal form, symbolises notions of a journey, growth, regeneration and the path of enlightenment. 

Bruce Munro: From Sunshine Road is a heart-warming, fascinating and impactful collection that won’t disappoint. The exhibition is now open at Heide until Sunday 16 October 2022. 

Bruce Munro: From Sunshine Road
Heide Museum of Modern Art, 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen, 3105
Open until Sunday 16 October 2022
heide.com.au/exhibitions/bruce-munro-sunrise-road