The Rainbowmaker
Jane Revell-Higgins on the works of Dr Fred Stern


Who would, as Gerald Manley Hopkins asks in his poem (1880), would make rainbows ”by invention?”

Fred Stern is an artist who uses the sky as his canvas to create natural rainbows as large as 600 metres across. Using the spray from fireboats or fire trucks he has created artificial rainfalls which refracted the sun’s light to create natural rainbows for the cities of New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Miami, Chicago, Amsterdam, Juarez, Mexico and Rio de Janeiro, to mention a few. In the summer of 1996 Stern created a rainbow over the United Nation’s building in New York City for Japanese National Television. In that monumental piece he raised what he sees as the planet’s true flag over the flags of all nations as a visual metaphor for World Peace and Global Unity. He has said if more of us pledged allegiance to the Earth or God’s flag, instead of died pieces of cloth symbolizing national allegiances, our world would be a much better place to be.

In 1992 he produced a series of rainbows for the UN Sponsored Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and three years later, he opened the Eutopia “Festival in Potsdam, Germany with his Holocaust Memorial piece “Keshet Sheket.” He has also presented his work for peace for the American Cancer Society and Alzheimer’s Association.

How does he accomplish this amazing work? He calls it, “Art Imitating Nature” and claims to do the same thing that Nature does when she makes a rainbow. So let’s begin by taking a look at how nature creates her rainbows. First the sun must be shining to your back and low in the sky (an angle of less than 42 degrees with the horizon) and there must be a rainfall in front of you. Yes, it is that simple; if these conditions are present the rainbow will spontaneously appear.

So what is Stern’s role in all of this? He has written a computer program that predicts the exact size and location of the rainbow. Actually a far more complex task than Stern makes it appear to have been. He then uses fire trucks or fireboats which draw water from river, lake or sea, to create his artificial rainfall and low and behold the rainbow just appears. Be assured that the water returns to its source so as not to waste precious resources, a point that Stern is keen to stress. After witnessing him making rainbows one realises that any time the sun is shining there is a rainbow around us and all we need is the magic dust of some water droplets to make it appear.

The most difficult part of rainbow making for large events is making sure the sun is out and shining brightly at the time of the event. Stern realized long ago that he could not be responsible for the sun showing up, so he requests that people coming to the rainbow bring the sun with them so they can get to see their rainbow. Actually, he views his events as collaboration between himself, a sponsoring organisation, a local fire department, the people attending and nature. There is often a charitable cause to benefit too which makes these events all the more spiritual. He says, “If all the elements are aligned the sun will be out and the rainbow will appear.” This does seem to be a winning formula because out of almost 50 rainbows there have only been three that did not work.

Stern considers the most unique part of his rainbows to happen when he makes them on land with fire trucks. He usually sprays about 1,500 to 5,000 gallons/minute (6,000 to 20,000 litres). With this much water any child in the vicinity can not resist running underneath it. The rainbow as it turns out is not a real object. As one gets closer to it, it gets smaller. For the children who are willing to get wet running up the rainbow they get to stand in the centre of a full circle double rainbow. Stern claims it to be one of the most beautiful and inspirational images he has ever seen. In a rainbow last June in his home state of New Mexico several hundred adults came with and without umbrellas and raincoats and walked into the rainbow. They of course immediately turned into laughing giggling children. As a long time, long distance friend of Stern’s, I have tried many times over the years to try and pull off a rainbow event for charity here in the UK. Maybe now, I said to him recently, we can encourage one of many harbour masters in the region to get behind what could be a fantastic visual start to a regatta and in doing so also raise funds for a really worthy cause. Perhaps someone reading this may feel inspired to use Stern’s expertise and to create something phenomenal in the West Country….

Even if this proves not to be possible this year, making your own rainbows is simple with a garden hose when you are poised to water your garden. Just face your back to the sun and spray water in the direction of your shadow and a rainbow will appear. This works best in the early morning or late afternoon.

Fred claims his most exiting rainbows were the two moon rainbows he created. Yes, he also makes moon bows by the light of the almost full moon. His first one was for a group of children with the genetic disease Xerodermapigmatosen, which does not allow them to be exposed to daylight. There is a camp in New York State where some of these children go for activity breaks. They live in UV protected bungalows during the day and at night when other kids are ordinarily heading off to bed, they ride horses, play ball games and head for the swings. There is even an ice cream truck that comes in at three in the morning with ice cream for the kids. It really is a fantastic place. When Stern heard about the Camp he volunteered to open the session with a full moon rainbow. The moon rainbow is like a pastel colored rainbow with very subtle colors. The children and their courageous parents ran and played in the rainbow. Stern was moved to tears by the courage of these parents and their children most of whom will die in their teens.

His second moon rainbow was for an Arab Village in the mountains of Israel. He saw this rainbow as amorphous as the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. This was one of three rainbows created for an Arab-Israeli Peace conference in Israel and Gaza. Both the Jewish people and the Muslim People believe in the Old Testament. They know that the first rainbow was shown to Noah as a sign of reconciliation between God and Man. Stern claims that this is one of the few symbols that both an Israeli and Palestinian can look at and see the same thing. The work was presented in 1999. Unfortunately since that time things have gotten much worse in the Middle East.

You ask, how did he get into this rainbow business? Stern was educated in the sciences. He received a Masters Degree in Nuclear Engineering and a PhD in Chemical Engineering. He taught Nuclear Engineering for a brief period of time when he realised that he had a moral responsibility for the people he was teaching and gave up work in the field. He later gave up Engineering completely when he started creating art. He worked with computers getting them to compose images, music and poetry and later worked with video as an Art Form. He served as Associate Professor of Art at Pratt Institute, New York University and the University of Maryland. His personal work during the late 60’s and early 70’s was public multi media works in opposition to the Vietnam war. Stern was always a believer in the most important art being in public places. In the late 70’s while working with building lighting and projection he realized that he could create large scale rainbows. He viewed the initial works as sculptural. They were three dimensional, had an aesthetic. They just were not permanent. But then again no-one said sculpture had to be permanent. At the Earth Summit in Rio the pieces moved out of the realm of art and sculpture and into political statement about peace and global unity.

What’s next? The United Kingdom of course – where is that forward thinking harbour master ? - and Hiroshima and Nagasaki and then the rainbow nation, South Africa.

For more information on Stern’s rainbow work check out www.rainbowmaker.us.