Rainbow Rooms
Pierre le Riche
Rainbow Rooms by Pierre le Riche | Photo by Society Hill Films
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Rainbow Rooms recreates a home scene in which the objects are covered with various fabrics and multi-colored thread, with even the walls themselves made of woven yarn. The installation reflects the artist’s experience growing up as a gay man in conservative South Africa, and is intended to stimulate a dialogue about identity, exploring struggles of discrimination, acceptance, and masculinity.
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The work is estimated to contain 20 miles of yarn. There is so much yarn, and so much tension on it, that it can bend the metal bars it is mounted on. Pierre likes this metaphor of something soft attaining strength in numbers.
The game of rugby is featured prominently in the installation. Rugby represents the competitive masculine culture which was unwelcoming to members of the LGBT community. By incorporating something soft and colorful like yarn, though, Pierre lowers the tension of the environment and reclaims a space for himself.
Pierre’s own room is covered in red while his parents’ room is covered in sheer fabric to represent their hidden emotions.
Viewers are invited to sit in the “living room” and reflect on their own experiences and struggles with their identity, not limited to their sexuality, and share their thoughts with others.
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Pierre le Riche is an artist from Cape Town, South Africa. He works within sculpture and installation and does not consider himself a specialist in any one medium or with any one material. He studied interior design and visual art.
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