A innovative artist has created a glittering ocean 40 miles inland – using 600,000 recycled COMPACT DISCS.
Renowned light installation artist Bruce Munro, 51, created the enormous CD wave to give a feeling of ”reflection” using commonplace materials.
He directed a team of 140 volunteers as they placed the myriad shiny discs in an intricate wave pattern on the grounds of his farmhouse in Kilmington, Wilts., to create ‘CD Sea’.
The reflective discs are consistently laid out over 10,000 square metres of grass, interrupted only by a single serpentine wave of grass running across the field.
Father-of-four Bruce said: ”Lots of the pieces that I work on are about reflection – about what might be and what has gone before.
”I wanted to create a sea, and I needed a material that would reflect the light – and I thought of CDs.
”From one side the CDs present a soft blue haze, but with the light ahead they dazzle like 600,000 mirrors.”
Bruce said he made the glassy field to recreate a ”turning point” in his life 30 years ago when he discovered the power of ”play of light” while contemplating the sea in Australia.
He added: ”I had this childish notion that by putting my hand in the sea, I was somehow connected to my home in Salcombe, Devon, where my father lived.
”Thirty years later I realised that some of the experiences I’ve had in my life, moments of reflection we all have from time to time, can be used as subject matter.”
The artist hit the headlines five years ago when he created a forest of light-filled tubes in the same field.
Volunteers sent Bruce 600,000 CDs from as far afield as Canada, Brazil, and Hong Kong and even received damaged choral CDs sent from the Vatican’s media company.
He recruited a team of 140 friends and colleagues, including Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud, to set about placing the discs over the weekend.
The team put in more than 2000 man-hours constructing the piece, which covers 10,000 square metres of grass.
The installation officially opened and can be reached via a public footpath that crosses the 10-acre field.
The CDs will now be left in their sea pattern for two months while the grass grows up through the artwork, before being collected for recycling.
Munro added: ”I was very nervous about it. You never know how something will work out, but now I could not be happier.
”I’m so grateful to everyone who turned out to help. We had a magical weekend and CD Sea looks amazing – like a giant painting on the grass.
”We want people to actively walk through it, and around it, and whatever they want to do with it.”
The ‘CD Sea’ is the first of a series of vast ”eco” projects made from recycled materials.
