This exhibition attempts to imitate some of nature’s most astonishing wonders: rainbows and other atmospheric optical phenomena, such as halos and solar coronae.

Using multiple highly-focus light sources and specialized optics, the transdiciplinary collaboration of artist Lukas Truniger and scientist Bruce Yoder create synthetic rainbows that move and transform slowly in the exhibition space. The work plays with the perception of the visitors who navigate the room, contemplating each rainbow from different positions. A soundscape further accentuates this space of exploration and experimentation.

Implausible Rainbows raises questions about how we interact with our environment and explores the intrinsic human desire to imitate, as well as to exert control over nature.

Weather control has historically been a crucial issue of military and geopolitical concern. While other atmospheric phenomena such as clouds feature a highly geostrategic interest in terms of access to water and cooling, rainbows are phenomena of pure aesthetic and poetic interest.

Truniger and Yoder reflect on this type of engineering and appropriate its techniques, while disassociating it from the motives of power. The installation highlights ideas of climate engineering, geoengineering and weather control, reusing these approaches for an artistic experience. The work also speculates on what these phenomena might look like in a future where atmospheric conditions are altered by climate change – for example: how would the rainbow of an ageing and cooling sun look?