Rain Room and Melbourne’s Prince Hotel
Interactive exhibition is a 100 square metres of rainfall that stops overhead, giving the ghostly sensation of being fully immersed but untouched by it. The boutique property’s 35 rooms have undergone a makeover befitting its Port Phillip Bay beach locale.
The Prince Hotel, in Melbourne’s edgy St Kilda suburb, hosts Random International’s Rain Room, an interactive exhibition featuring an 100-square-metre field of continuous rainfall, in its rooftop art space.
What is it? The Prince Hotel is an elegantly cool, 35-room boutique property in the edgy bayside suburb of St Kilda, in Melbourne’s southeast. The four-storey art deco building ticks all the boxes for an intimate getaway: indoor pool; Aurora Spa; atrium cafe; and modern restaurant. The rooms and suites have little balconies from where guests can glimpse the palm-striped Port Phillip Bay beachfront. The building was bought by Chinese-Australian entrepreneur Louis Li in 2015.
So why is it the talk of the town? In August, a super edgy, purpose-built art space dubbed Jackalope Pavilion (a funky shed, essentially) was erected on the hotel rooftop. It is home to Rain Room, an interactive exhibition featuring a 100-square-metre field of continuous rainfall.
While Melburnians can fully appreciate a thorough downpour, there’s an intriguing quirk here. As participants walk around the space, movement sensors in the ceiling turn the water off and on, providing the ghostly sensation of being fully immersed in the rain and simultaneously untouched by it.
But what does it all mean? The theme of the exhibition is how humans relate to the natural world and to machines; the rain representing the natural world, the machines being the sensors that turn the rain on and off. “Pieces such as Rain Room have the ability to turn something ordinary into something that is surreal and unfamiliar,” says Li. “Melbourne’s cultural landscape is vibrant and always evolving. In this city, people never tire of new and exciting experiences.”
Cool greens and natural materials evoke a beachy feel befitting the property’s locale. Photo: Tom Blachford
Who is behind it? Rain Room was created by Hannes Koch, Florian Ortkrass and Stuart Wood, founders of British art studio Random International. It first showed at London’s Barbican, in 2012, and has since travelled the globe. At Shanghai’s Yuz Museum, it attracted more than 200,000 people.
So how did it come to be in Melbourne? Li’s wealthy Kunming-based family are developers with a hotel portfolio. Li, who studied in Melbourne and is founder and owner of the Jackalope Hotel, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, bought the work and brought it to Australia in conjunction with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, a government-funded cultural hub.
The work is now a permanent part of the Jackalope Art Collection and will eventually be housed in Li’s second Jackalope hotel, set to open in 2020 on Flinder’s Lane, in Melbourne’s central business district.
And The Prince Hotel? Rain Room is part of the hotel’s ongoing metamorphosis. In 2017, the rooms were upgraded from masculine dark wood and black interiors to the current palette of dusty greens and mushroom pinks to reflect its beachy locale.
Fine-dine restaurant Circa closed in December to make way for the Prince Dining Room, a light-filled and casual eatery that caters to a high-end crowd without the polished service. On street level, The Prince Public Bar, a former LGBT hang-out, is set to reopen this December with gastropub fare. A wine room and delicatessen will follow in February. The Prince’s iconic Bandroom, a venue that has been putting on shows for more than 60 years – Lenny Kravitz, Pink and Coldplay have played here – will keep hosting five gigs a week.
Anything else? Li has recently acquired Sydney’s Black Star Bakery, creator of the heavenly strawberry and watermelon layered cake – an Instagram favourite that popped up at Hong Kong’s three-day Taste food festival last year. The Melbourne incarnation will open on the ground level of the Prince Hotel in December.
What’s the damage? Room rates start at A$189 (US$130), including tax but excluding breakfast. Entry to the Rain Room costs A$18.90, A$31.10, A$88.70 per child, adult, family, respectively. The exhibition runs until Friday, January 31, 2020.