Walking into a huge, white-washed, renovated airplane hanger, the designated waiting space for Shanghai’s newest interactive art installation, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the “Rain Room”.” First debuted in London in 2012, then in New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2013, the Rain Room has been a sensation everywhere it has went. Finally, it has arrived in Shanghai’s contemporary art museum, the YUZ museum (located on the West Bund in the Xuhui district), to lend viewers a unique artistic experience. The art installation is located inside a white-washed, enormous once-airplane hangar. Viewers wait in anticipation on benches envisioning what lay cloaked in the other (in typical Shanghai fashion) black room. Finally, a group of about twenty people is led into the room where the installation awaits. The entire room is dark except for a light at the far end (think light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel style). A large square patch of the floor is grated, and the sound of water falling and slipping through the metal grating reverberates throughout the room. It is raining inside. Reflecting the metal grating on the ceiling are pores through which water falls in the same cadence as a light thunderstorm. Since the room is entirely dark, it is hard to tell where the limits of the exhibit are. The light reflects the falling water so viewers can see the dramatic contrast between the silvery strings of water and the people who are walking around in the middle of the room. That’s when you realizie – people are casually walking around in the middle of the room and they are not wet. This is the catch of the exhibit -- it is raining, except for where you are. Wherever you walk, the motion detectors ensure that the water ceases to fall. The YUZ museum employees prompt you; they state that if you do not have trust in the motion-sensing capabilities of the installation, test it by reaching your arms out at the peripheries and slowly make your way into the middle of the indoor rainstorm. I was impressed with the quickness of the technology; even walking at a brisk pace, I was not getting wet. It’s a strange feeling. When I closed my eyes, it smelled dewey and sounded like the summer rainstorms of my childhood. But I didn’t feel wet, and my senses were both slightly distorted and heightened by the aesthetics in the room. When I made my way towards the light bulb fixed at the far end of the room, it truly felt like walking towards the ‘light at the end of the tunnel.’ After spending a little over twenty minutes holding my arms out waiting for but never receiving water droplets conglomerate on my fingertips, taking quick steps to test the quickness of the sensors, and standing still staring at the shapes of the droplets as they fell from the ceiling, my group was ushered out of the black room and back into the real world. Although tickets at the door are a steep 150 rmb (they are a little cheaper if purchased online), the Rain Room is truly an experience. For a cheaper price, “view-only” tickets can be purchased where viewers can see the exhibit inside the black room without actually walking through it. According to the YUZ museum, Random International created the installation to offer participants a “unique relationship with water.” Even for those who are not art enthusiasts, the interactive installation provides an environment for people to experience art in an interactive, personal way. The exhibit is open until Dec. 31. This article was written by Zoe Jordan. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Saurya Risal