Art, Technology and Nature Intersect at a Dazzling Installation in Paso Robles

Sensorio, an immersive new destination in Paso Robles, debuted an illuminated art installation by internationally acclaimed artist Bruce Munro. The British-based artist created his largest site-specific project to date, with the enormous multi-acre walk-through artwork, Bruce Munro: Field of Light at Sensorio.

Field of Light is a sculptural composition that covers Sensorio’s rolling hills with an array of more than 58,800 stemmed spheres lit by fiber-optics, gently illuminating the landscape in subtle blooms of morphing color. Powered by solar, the stunning exhibition is expected to captivate visitors, inviting them to engage with the countryside through an ethereal light-based, sculptural experience.

Smithsonian Magazine has called Munro’s work “stunning,” while The Guardian noted, “This is art you feel, rather than art you view.”

The Huffington Post said, “It can be hard to describe in words the gifts that Munro bestows on the landscape as his work escapes description in either written or photographic form, it is something to be experienced.”

Theoretical physicist/Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek noted, “I had the uncanny sense that I was walking through my own mind, or at least a good model of it. I’ll never again think about brains, or myself, in quite the same way.”

Munro created an international sensation with a stunning Field of Light installation in Uluru, Northern Territories, Australia in 2016 that was met with instant acclaim. Involving 326 miles of optic fiber, Field of Light in Uluru has been seen by over 200,000 guests in one of the world’s most remote locations, and will remain on display through December 2020. The journey to that exhibition started in 1992, when Munro and his fiancée (now wife) took a camping tour of Australia’s red desert center. Struck by the thought that deserts seem infertile, until it rained and the flowers bloomed, Munro dreamt of a field of lights that, like dormant seeds in a dry desert, would quietly wait until darkness to bloom with gentle rhythms of light. The first iteration of Field of Light was not created until 12 years later, in 2004, in Munro’s own home field in Wiltshire, UK. Since then, he has been invited to temporarily recreate Field of Light in many forms: along water and through forests, in urban squares, on building roofs, and over rocky buttes.

Sensorio’s breathtaking exhibit is larger in size than any other Munro exhibition internationally and Munro’s first U.S. exhibit entirely powered by solar. For Sensorio, Munro creates an even larger field, offering visitors an unparalleled experience of immersing themselves in a breathtaking otherworld. Other amenities include refreshments and a special terrace option offering viewing while dining.

Bruce Munro: Field of Light at Sensorio, now through January 5, 2020. Wednesday-Sunday, 7-11 p.m., $9-$30. Sensorio, 4380 Highway 46 East in Paso Robles, 805-226-4287. sensoriopaso.com.