The recipe for a rainbow is simple: start with piece of sky and add sunlight and water. Now someone has developed a way to rinse and repeat.
Artist, Guggenheim Fellow, and professor at Virginia Commonwealth University Michael Jones McKean has spent the last eight years perfecting his make-at-home rainbow technique. With jet pumps, hoses and spray nozzles that all originated from commercial irrigation equipment, he shoots water into the air to mimic a rainstorm, creating on-demand rainbows. All he needs is a sunny day. Instead of a pot of gold at the base of each rainbow there lies a storage tank of collected rainwater, which McKean saves for next time.
This summer the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska -- where McKean was once a fellow -- will have an installation of his nature-harnessing work in which visitors will be able to walk through two, roughly fifteen minute-long rainbows each day. The arcs may be as long as 200 feet across and 200 feet high, and depending on outdoor conditions, they may be visible up to 1,000 feet away.
Titled “The Rainbow Project,” McKean's creations will form over the roof of the Bemis Center, where downspouts will collect the water for recycling. According to the Center, rainbows are a familiar, yet rare occurrence. The installation hopes to evoke the imagination of the visitors and take them out of the everyday for a moment. As the Bemis Center describes:
Whether a majestic arch in the sky that appears fleetingly after a short spring shower or a small, homespun rainbow created with a garden hose on a sunny day, a rainbow operates as one of the most egalitarian of visual experiences; one that is by nature temporary, undetermined, and wonderful. Using the most elemental materials, sunlight and water, The Rainbow Project exists somewhere between real and representation, actual and artifice.
Tags: Artists, Recycling, Reuse, Solar Power, Water
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