The message in the rain
Here’s one positive side to bad weather, at least in the US
Rain. The word fills Bangkokians with fear, especially in rainy season. It can lead to so many unhappy incidents — horrendous hours-long traffic jams, power outages, fallen trees, floods, rodents on the run or just plain getting soaked from head to toe.
But there’s always a positive side to everything, and that’s what American artist Peregrine Church saw in the rain. Church is the creator of “Rainworks”, a fast-expanding series of public street art that appears only when it rains, thanks to hydrophobic coating.
The Seattle-based project, in which Church is helped by Xack Fischer and Forest Tresidder, can now be found throughout the US, bringing smiles to people not just despite, but because of the gloomy rain.
Guru speaks with Church about his rainactivated project and the inspiration behind it.
How did you come up with the idea for rain art?
I am really interested in art that interacts with its environment, and I like to repurpose materials for artistic projects. I saw a video online that featured clips of hydrophobic coating repelling water, wine and other liquids. I thought that if you sprayed some of that hydrophobic coating onto concrete, it would keep that part of the concrete drier, and all of the rest of the concrete would get darker from the moisture.
How did “Rainworks” come about?
Having figured that the contrast would create an image, we experimented with a few different hydrophobic coatings until we found one that was completely invisible and environmentally friendly. And it worked! We’ve been making “Rainworks” ever since.
What do you aim to achieve through your creations?
We want to make people smile. We want to give people a reason to look forward to rainy days and make them feel happy about the rain. And we want to help make the world a more interesting place — when people have a unique shared experience, they will start talking to each other and connecting with the people around them. I love the idea of two strangers seeing one of our “Rainworks” at a bus stop and engaging in conversation about it.
Does rain art make people look at rainy days differently?
Our mission with “Rainworks” has always been to make people look forward to rainy days, but it’s been truly amazing to see just how much it has achieved that goal. We’ve had countless people write to us and tell us how excited they are for the rain. Every time it rains in Seattle, Instagram blows up with pictures that people have shared and tagged with #Rainworks. That’s the really amazing thing for us — people are really excited for the rain, and they go out and explore on rainy days. It really warms our hearts to see that. I definitely always look forward to the rain now.
How many projects have you completed so far?
“Rainworks” are temporary; the old ones are always fading. So we are constantly putting up new ones in their place. We usually have about a dozen Rainworks spread out across Seattle at any given time. We’ve done some big Rainworks installations at the WET Science Center in Olympia, Washington, and at Quail Park Assisted Living Community in Lynnwood, Washington. Recently, NBC Connecticut flew us across the country and
we made some “Rainworks” outside their studios in West Hartford, Connecticut. There is also one “Rainwork” in California that we created for Maker Faire 2015.
Do you have plans to do this outside the US?
We definitely aim to get “Rainworks” spread out across the globe. We are talking to people from all over the world, including the UK, Prague and Singapore. If all goes according to plan, there should be “Rainworks” in several international locations by the end of 2015.
Any plans for future collaboration?
We are are working to get other artists involved. We have been contacted by an overwhelming amount of people who are interested in making their own “Rainworks”. Right now, we are working on a tutorial video that will teach people how to make them. We are also working on setting up US distribution for the hydrophobic coating. Our goal is to make a worldwide network of rain-activated art spreading positivity, smiles and love around the globe. We are also going to allow other artists to add their own “Rainworks” to the official map so they can be found all over the world on rainy days. G
Check out more “Rainworks” at rain. works (yes, that’s the website) or on Twitter: @CreateToConnect.You can also email the “Rainworks” team at icreatenovelty@gmail.com (and try to convince them to come to Thailand).