The Prince Hotel in Melbourne scores immersive Rain Room rooftop art installation
- Interactive exhibition is a 100 square metres of rainfall that stops overhead, giving the ghostly sensation of being fully immersed but untouched by it
- The boutique property’s 35 rooms have undergone a makeover befitting its Port Phillip Bay beach locale
While Melburnians can fully appreciate a thorough downpour, there’s an intriguing quirk here. As participants walk around the space, movement sensors in the ceiling turn the water off and on, providing the ghostly sensation of being fully immersed in the rain and simultaneously untouched by it.
But what does it all mean? The theme of the exhibition is how humans relate to the natural world and to machines; the rain representing the natural world, the machines being the sensors that turn the rain on and off. “Pieces such as Rain Room have the ability to turn something ordinary into something that is surreal and unfamiliar,” says Li. “Melbourne’s cultural landscape is vibrant and always evolving. In this city, people never tire of new and exciting experiences.”
Who is behind it? Rain Room was created by Hannes Koch, Florian Ortkrass and Stuart Wood, founders of British art studio Random International. It first showed at London’s Barbican, in 2012, and has since travelled the globe. At Shanghai’s Yuz Museum, it attracted more than 200,000 people.