Waiting For The Rain Bow

"After the rain comes the rainbow" quoted architects Tonkin Liu about their newish Rain Bow Gate sculpture for Burnley. One of their references they said, was the fact that Burnley was the first place to ever record it's rainfall.

When the Pennine rain inevitably falls, it drums onto this 'shell lace' of folded steel plate, before being channelled to the ground. On it's way, a hundred or more prisms refracts any sunlight (you may need to wait a while for this phenomenon up here) to cast some mini rainbows in the same damp Lancashire air as was coveted by the old cotton weavers.

The structural principles of the 'Shell Lace' are being developed with engineer Arup to mimic both the organic beauty and strength of seashells. This was their first prototype in that, and pretty impressive I say.

Whilst I love the sculpture though, I am not convinced that something as ethereal as a rainbow can ever be conjured up artificially in anything other than just art-speak. Does it matter? Probably not.

Rain Bow Gate is actually the third example of Tonkin Liu's work featured on my blip series, the others being Singing Ringing Tree (also in Burnley) and Future Flower in Widnes.

A bit of Shirley Bassey to finish.