Rainbow City

Commissioned by the Luminato Arts Festival in Toronto

Toronto, Canada

June 15-June 20, 2010

Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami Beach, FL

December 2010

The High Line, New York

June 8-July 5, 2011

Rainbow City Roller Rink, Detroit, MI

November 30, 2018-January 27, 2019

Shreveport, LA

November 2-December 8, 2019

Rainbow City was a 40-piece environmental installation addressing the potency of interaction, ritual, and play. Inspired by Holi, a Hindu festival where people smear and drench each other with colors, FriendsWithYou presents a vibrant collection of mutable, air-filled sculptures. Fabricated of intensely colored materials, the installation encouraged visitors to be active and explore – subsequently, inventing their own ritual. The individual structures were simple, minimal forms, borrowing aesthetics from toy-like geometry and design. Each element towered over guests with height ranges from ten to forty feet. By dwarfing the audience, the totemic pieces triggered a sense of reverence, similar to the visual objective of a monolithic monument. During interaction, the inflated sculptures “embraced” visitors, while repetitive sound elements further enhanced the sensory experience. The overall installation created a surreal landscape of psychedelic scenery intended to simultaneously provoke a religious and childlike awareness. Rainbow City invited spectators to participate with a responsive environment, offering an opportunity to connect physically and psychologically with an energetic, yet ephemeral, setting.

A modified version of the “Rainbow City” Roller Rink was exhibited in Detroit, MI.