A sprawling, glowing art installation with more than 4,000 elements, including moving, light-up pieces, has taken root beyond Shelter 3 at Mount Trashmore Park in Virginia Beach, transforming a familiar stretch of parkland into something closer to a nighttime fairy-tale forest. Called Where Wonder Grows: Sanctuary, the free exhibit opened Saturday and will remain on view through Dec. 16.
The installation comes from Skunk Control, an Australian art collective, and is presented by the Virginia Beach Cultural Affairs Department, according to WAVY. Visitors can walk through the piece during regular park hours, with extended access until 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the run, except on Halloween night, per vbpublicart.org.
The scale of the project is hard to overstate. Vbpublicart.org counts roughly 3,000 illuminated flowers standing three to five feet tall, eight kinetic peacocks with moving tail feathers, and 55 birdhouses rigged with kinetic birds and birdsong scattered throughout the grounds. The Virginian-Pilot also reports the display features 10 kinetic guardian flowers topping 17 feet that unfurl and close, along with 350 illuminated plants that glow after dark, as detailed by The Virginian-Pilot.
A Butterfly Count That Depends on Who You Ask
Just how many butterflies flutter through Sanctuary depends on the source. WAVY reports the installation includes kinetic flowers more than 17 feet high along with more than 1,300 butterflies, while the Virginian-Pilot's count puts the figure at 600 butterflies, including 30 with four-foot wingspans. Either way, the fluttering wings are part of a display that, according to the Pilot's reporting, took Skunk Control about a year to create and 13 days to install on-site.
Nick Athanasiou, Skunk Control's founder and lead artist, described Sanctuary as the most ambitious installation the team has created to date, built on a far grander scale than its earlier work, the station notes. He was scheduled to give an artist talk at 5:30 p.m. during Saturday's opening celebration, which ran from 4 to 8 p.m. and was free and open to the public, according to vbpublicart.org.
Designed as an Escape, Not a Checklist
Athanasiou told the Pilot that every element in Sanctuary relates to nature and is meant to offer solace and respite from daily life, and that the design aims to help adults reconnect with the discovery, adventure and optimism of their formative years. He said the work is meant to be approached randomly, like an actual sanctuary, rather than toured in sequence. Asked about a favorite part of the installation, he said he didn't have one, instead expressing hope that visitors would find smaller details within the exhibit — and within themselves.
Emily Labows, director of the Virginia Beach Cultural Affairs Department, told the Pilot the finished installation exceeded expectations and includes more pieces than the artist originally anticipated, bringing art directly into the everyday rhythm of a park visit. She added that the exhibit's central location, free parking and all-ages appeal make it an easy stop for residents, and said officials are looking forward to seeing visitors walk through, play in and enjoy the experience.
Part of a Broader Body of Light-and-Science Art
Sanctuary fits into a much longer pattern for Skunk Control, which began working together in 2012 as a group of creative science and engineering academics, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The collective's work consistently draws on chemistry, electromagnetism and optics, blending electronics and advanced lighting with visual design, as Hi-Fructose Magazine has reported. Past projects include Harvest Harbinger, built from more than 86 food-based elements, and Ephemera Undone, a forest of flowers that rapidly shift colors as polarized light passes through the plastics used to build them. The group has been commissioned to exhibit at festivals both in Australia and abroad, per the same Sydney Morning Herald account.
For now, the spectacle belongs to Mount Trashmore. Where Wonder Grows: Sanctuary remains free and open to the public beyond Shelter 3 through Dec. 16, giving Virginia Beach residents two months to wander among thousands of glowing flowers, kinetic peacocks and birdhouses before the installation comes down.
