Saturday, October 23, 2021
Yesterday I visited an immersive art experience in the Royal Docks. They should have called it Flyover Shower. Instead they called it Flavour Rainbow.
It's part of an events-packed fortnight at the Royal Docks, a business enterprise zone attempting to boost its economic credibility by rebranding as a Cultural Quarter.
Royal Docks Originals is part of the Royal Docks Cultural Placemaking Strategy, an ambitious vision to make the Royal Docks ‘the cultural engine’ of London - a major new cultural quarter.
In reality the Royal Docks is a vast post-industrial development area which remains some way off meeting its full potential so has a lot of large empty spaces available for temporary projects. But let's not get hung up on that, let's talk art.
Multisensory wizards Bompas and Parr are creating the world’s first rainbow you can interact with, with flavours inspired by the Royal Docks' past. And as if that wasn’t enough colour for you, they'll be making a huge rainbow shine over Royal Victoria Dock twice a day (when the sun’s out).
Bompas & Parr are two jellymakers who've diversified into experiential design because that's where the money is. They like dark spaces with lights, smells and probably something food related. A flavour rainbow would be just their kind of thing.
Harry Parr of Bompas & Parr Studio says "Flavour and meteorology have always fascinated us; to see them both collide in the Royal Docks is a dream come true."
This is the kind of bolx that Bompas & Parr often utter. But I went along anyway.
The location is inbetween the Silvertown Tunnel building site and the new City Hall (also a building site), specifically underneath the Silvertown Viaduct. Meet by the coffee shop next to the Thai restaurant, they said. You're supposed to book in advance but walk-up tickets are often available so I walked up and they let me in. The multi-coloured portal is the only rainbow I ended up seeing.
The two-part installation will introduce Londoners to the world’s first Flavour Rainbow beneath Silvertown Way. Guests will be invited to experience flavours of the rainbow inspired by Royal Docks' commercial history and the imagination of its residents, such as spices from across the world, coffee, flour and sugar.
A temporary ramp leads down into the void below the viaduct past a couple of display boards, then under a temporary arch onto a temporary platform. The supposed rainbow is over to the left through a black waterproof curtain. Plastic see-through umbrellas are available unless you prefer to get wet.
Scented water falls from a single line of scaffolding on the far side of the space. Only the central section has jets - six in total - so you may have to wait your turn. The water drains away through a metal grating under your feet. The overall ambience has something of the swimming pool changing room about it.
The installation uses white light refracted through falling moisture that appears multicoloured in the eyes of its viewer, as part of a multisensory experience.
Two problems. The water is only vaguely perfumed, so that if you extend your arm into the shower and then hold it to your nose it doesn't smell of anything. I only knew I was supposed to be experiencing blueberry, watermelon and lemon because I'd read to the end of one of the information boards. All I got was a very brief vague whiff of Parma Violets.
More importantly, there was no rainbow. I looked up, I looked down, I even stood back and looked from a distance, but at no point did I see anything resembling prismatic colour. I wondered afterwards if the six nozzles were each lit with a different colour of the rainbow but all I spotted at the time was maybe a yellow one.
What I did enjoy was the opportunity to do something properly unusual in a space you can't normally access. The Silvertown Viaduct is Britain's first flyover, constructed in 1934, so going underneath is pretty special indeed. A forest of thin concrete pillars supports the road above, some illuminated by the artists to add a bit of pizazz. The discarded pipes, triangular 'men at work' signs and toppled wheelbarrow weren't part of the art but they certainly added to the unique ambience.
The second half of the commission will feature a Giant Rainbow built over the Royal Docks, and made visible when the sun shines inspiring its audience to reflect on the pandemic. The installation, like rainbows seen many times before, will be synonymous with hope, prosperity and a sense of community.
Further up the dock I spotted a small boat with a multi-coloured hull and a hose firing a short jet of water. Although I wandered round the waterfront and viewed the boat from several angles I never saw a rainbow of any kind. According to the blurb the rainbow is only visible at 10am and 4pm when the sun's out, which it very much was, but the jet of water generated no special colours whatsoever.
Sam Bompas, Co-Founder of Bompas & Parr studio said: "The Royal Docks is the obvious place to showcase the world's first Flavour Rainbow as we share its history and celebrate its vibrant future as the new cultural engine of London. It’s a joy to be able to create a sense of wonder particularly within the grandeur of Europe’s very first flyover.”
I have long suspected that jellymongers Bompas & Parr might be overrated. I saw nothing at the Royal Docks to make me change my mind.
Flavour Rainbow is open Wed, Thur and Sun 10am-6pm; Fri and Sat 11am-9pm until 31st October
<< click for Newer posts
click for Older Posts >>
click to return to the main page
