Raining in New York City

FINALLY I MADE IT!

"Made it to what?" you might ask. To the Rain room at MoMA.

View from the queue.

The Rain room is a fantastic installation by Random International and is obviously one of the most susccessful contemporary art exhibitions in New York this year. Which basically means that hundreds of people are completely prepared to stand in line for HOURS AND HOURS in the scorching heat just to play around in a dark room with water falling from the ceiling.

Although I have MoMA membership (= precedence + earlier viewing hours) and came there around 7 in the morning (don't ask, the heat is preventing me from sleeping, so instead of sweating in bed, I just decided to get up and go.), I still waited in line for about 6 hours. MoMA kindly supplied umbrellas for shading and chilled bottled water for us losers who stood in line in the scorching sun. To be completely honest, I kind of expected a better management of the crowds, e.g. with scheduled entrances to reduce the lines like they do for some temporary exhibits at European musea... But who am I to be a smartass in this situation? And bottom line, they did quite good. Kudos again for the water!!!

Aaaaaaand what's the gist of the installation and is it worth the wait? Well, it's a large dark room where it rains. Pours. Cats and dogs. But an array of sensors actually stops the raining above the visitors' heads, which means that you're free to roam the downpour without getting wet. Awesome. It IS worth the wait. Absolutely. Yes. Of course.

After 6-ish hours in the outside heat, THIS awaits. 

The darkness and a single spotlight really make the downpour visible and the people playing in the rain little more than silhouettes. A beautiful effect.

And how it feels to be inside the weather phenomenon?

Fun. Fresh. And a bit wet. The sensors themselves work reasonably OK if you walk around. But if, like me, you decide to run around like a four-year old, you'll get wet. And the wetness is directly proportional to your speed and amount of sudden moves like sideways jumps etc. you decide on performing. So, I got pretty wet in the process. And had an amazing fun. 

And after a bit more of waiting, I got to join the fun and frolick around in the rain.

Since my trip to the Rain room lasted until about 2.30 in the afternoon and left me hungry, tired and just about heatstricken, I decided to cancel my plans to go to Queens and meet a friend, but we managed to postpone and she was very very understanding about it. I grabbed lunch instead and went for a walk. Finally the heatwave seems to be subsiding a bit and I am finally able to breathe again. It's still hot and humid as in a pressure cooker, but somehow livable now… Finally!

SOTD: Dream Theater - Trial of Tears (because the chorus talks about how it's raining in New York City)

Stay cool.

Jules