An eco exhibition has left minds ‘boggled’ after an installation of nearly 1,000 fake flamingos was designed to highlight plastic pollution turned out to be made out of the material.
‘Ramandu’s Table’ by Bruce Munro is intended to raise awareness about the world’s reliance on single-use plastics and the impact they have on waterways and the ocean.
And its flock of large plastic flamingos have appeared in the water outside City Hall ahead of Bristol Light Festival 2025 – which begins tomorrow.
The birds are made from injection-moulded acrylic and are intended to bring a ‘contemporary, illuminated interpretation to a public space’.
And the festival’s director said the art piece draws attention to the power of ‘reuse and recycle’.
But locals have already slammed the installation, pointing out that it may do the environment more harm than good.
‘Are they made of plastic?’ one inquired on social media.
‘The mind boggles,’ sighed another.
An eco exhibition has left minds ‘boggled’ after an installation of 1,000 fake flamingos was designed to highlight plastic in the oceans – but are made out of the material
An art installation of fake flamingos designed to highlight plastic in the ocean
Bruce Munro is renowned throughout the world for his installations using mirrors and lights
Munro said: ‘We created Ramandu’s Table over a decade ago, and it has toured across cities around the world to literally shine a light on the importance and beauty of wildlife.
‘The flamingos are reworked and reused, time and time again for our projects.’
It’s not the first time the artist has carried out well-intentioned stunts.
In 2013, he turned a Wiltshire hill into a ‘giant breast’ lit up at night to raise awareness of cancer.
Made from thousands of plastic bottles and tiny lights, the 16ft high and ten feet wide orb glowed in blue and pink under the dark sky.
Munro created the ‘nipple’ on top of Long Knoll, a large round hill near his home village of Kilmington.
After losing a friend to the disease, Mr Munro decided to build an art installation to raise awareness of breast cancer.
Created using 2,730 bottles, a team of five worked for weeks to set up the installation which will be lit up at night for one week.
In 2013, Munro turned a Wiltshire hill into a giant breast to raise awareness of cancer
The Field of Light art installation at Freedom Plaza in New York,, 2023, made by Munro
‘It’s a huge physical and logistical challenge,’ Munro told Western Daily Press at the time.
‘We couldn’t get vehicles up on to the knoll and we did consider putting it into the field but actually then it loses the point.’
His studio will have two works at Bristol Light Festival 2025 with C-Scales on Castle Bridge featuring more than 1,800 CDs and DVDs that would otherwise have been thrown away.
But many Bristolians have already been left nonplussed by the avian exibit.
‘Bit of a mixed message isn’t it?’ demanded one.
‘Are they made in China and moulded from plastic?’ added another.
‘Why are they not pink? In real life just go to Slimbridge up the road, they’ve got six [types of flamingo] breeding there.’
Bristol Light Festival creative director, Katherine Jewkes, said: ‘At the heart of Bristol Light Festival is a commitment to minimise our carbon footprint and as a part of that we work closely with artists to repurpose and reexhibit artworks, as well as premiering new work which will then have a future life on tour.
The festival’s director said the art piece draws attention to the power of ‘reuse and recycle’
The Bruce Munro Studio will have two works at Bristol Light Festival 2025
Pictured are the fake flamingos in Bristol for the light show
‘Bruce Munro Studio has a track record of making groundbreaking work about the environment, and we’re extremely proud he chose Bristol as the next city for this iconic work to be placed.
‘Shining a light on the world’s reliance on single use plastics, the artwork itself is now a fantastic example of the power of reuse and recycle, having toured for over a decade, bringing this important conversation to audiences around the globe.’
The artist, who does much of his work in Australia, is renowned throughout the world for his installations using mirrors and lights.
He is best known for a series of art projects known as Fields of Light, the first of which was exhibited at the V&A museum in 2004 and the CDSea where he laid out 600,000 unwanted CDs donated from people across the globe in a field near Kilmington.