Contemporary Art Will Ruin Your Wedding
When is a rainbow a bad thing? When it's ruining your carefully planned minimalist wedding reception booked at the Art Institute of Chicago, that's when! In this tale of horror, an installation by artist Pae White causes couples to reconsider hosting their weddings parties in the museum space.
When is a rainbow a bad thing? When it’s ruining your carefully planned minimalist wedding reception booked at the Art Institute of Chicago, that’s when! In this tale of horror, an installation by artist Pae White causes couples to reconsider hosting their weddings parties in the museum space.
The normally calm, cool and quiet Chicago Art Institute’s new wing designed by Renzo Piano seems like a great place for weddings: lots of white, lots of windows, open space (check out Monica and Tim’s pro wedding shots from Todd Pellowe). But the new installation, called “Restless Rainbow” (2011), changes all that with a series of acid-colored rainbow bands covering the floor and far wall of the pavilion’s terrace. The bands block out the normal clear view of Millennium Park and the Chicago skyline with panels over 18 feet tall, adding a decidedly sassy touch to the outdoor space.
Couples are crying foul, accusing the museum of selling them a wedding venue that now doesn’t exist. Gabrielle Berger and Nick Sainati are getting married in the space, but Berger thinks White’s installation is “like a clown’s nightmare,” according to a detailed Chicago Tribune report on the issue. The best part? Berger has previously worked at MoMA. Maybe something less contemporary, perhaps a nice Sol Lewitt, would have been better?
Chicagoist points out that these brides have become bridezillas. Obviously the $5,000 to $10,000 it costs to rent the space is just totally wasted with the new rainbow additions. In the end, the couples are probably just going to have to deal with it, or find somewhere else to be wed. “Because of complaints, the Art Institute has been working with couples on alternatives,” the Tribune article notes. “They have been offered full access to the Nichols Bridgeway, which connects the Modern Wing to Millennium Park, for their events.”
Wouldn’t some people pay more for the added cache of contemporary art to their wedding? Maybe the couples should all just postpone a year and let art aficionados get married in their place. No sense in letting a good exhibition go to waste.
Pae White’s “Restless Rainbows” is on view at the Art Institute of Chicago through September 25. That is, if angry couples don’t destroy it first.
