The Rain Room may be the only place in New York where you can walk through a downpour and not get wet. The latest in a string of interactive crowd-pleasing art exhibitions, MOMA’s Rain Room is presented in what was an empty lot directly adjacent to the museum, giving humans a sort of supernatural power over their environment while addressing our fantasies of controlling the weather. The 5,000 square foot installation had its debut at the Barbican in London and was created by Random International, a London and Berlin-based art and engineering collective known for their distinctive approach to contemporary practice, designing experimental projects which come alive through audience interaction.
A field of falling water- a 260 gallon per minute shower- that stops in the area where people walk through allows them to remain dry, thanks to a room full of 3-D cameras that capture real-time information about the participants movements. Recognizing the presence of the viewer, this allows for them to traverse through a downpour relatively splash-free…however if you move too quickly, you just may get wet. So everyone can have a chance to become performers on an unexpected stage, capacity is limited to just 10 people at a time, and the monster line- the wait can be upwards of ten hours– usually gets cut off in the early afternoon. About to close on July 28th, this is currently New York’s biggest attraction- besides the infamous Cronut– which makes me wonder why New Yorkers are choosing to partake in Disneyland-style lines these days- however, I’m thinking the fear-of-missing-out syndrome has afflicted the city big-time. No matter…just grab a Cronut and take a stroll through the rain- if you can. www.moma.org
[…] to many, Friedman was the person responsible for bringing this past summer’s blockbuster Rain Room to the MOMA, which was commissioned by […]