What’s hot and wet? That would be tickets to Random International’s exhibit at LACMA, Rain Room. This immersive environment is currently sold out, but new blocks of tickets to this timed event pop up every few weeks, and member tickets may be available. Just why is a museum exhibit so popular? Well, some of it is just how cool an experience it is to literally walk in the rain without getting wet, some of it is the fact that it’s a visually and physically stunning experience, and some of it is that it’s just plain fun.
However you count the raindrops, it’s definitely NOT all wet that an art exhibit is maybe just as popular as that first home game for the Rams will be when they show up in town.
So what does the exhibit actually entail? Continual indoor rain in a dark room shimmering with bright light. The water pauses whenever a human body is detected, but watch out – if you’re wearing dark clothing it may not detect you all that well. This isn’t the place for your favorite goth look. What happens when you walk across the black floor? All in all it’s akin to stepping beneath a waterfall that magically stops whenever you move. The result: an illusion that participants control their environment. Beyond the fascination of stopping and starting little deluges, the falling water itself is lit to suggest an otherworldly experience, the water becoming at certain angles small pin points of light, as if each stream was the tail of a shooting star.
In short, visitors will feel as if they are entering uncharted territory when they step into the dark, wet room. A dimension in which nature itself is under our control, or at least the art that springs from that nature.
The exhibit runs through March 6th. Check LACMA’s website or box office for tickets.
Rain Room
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
www.lacma.org
- Genie Davis; Photos: Genie Davis and LACMA