Ugo Rondinone: the rainbow body | Sadie Coles HQ
I visited the rainbow body the week before Pride in London. Regent Street, a few metres away from the gallery and part of the route of the parade, was festooned with rainbow flags. The Swiss-born artist’s used rainbows over the decades of his practice too, though for a different purpose.
Rondinone has argued that the rainbow is a “bridge between everything and everyone” - a statement of the universal that devolves into meaninglessness. It reflects the brain-emptying immersive experience of visiting this room.
The new London installation is a reprise of Rondinone’s nudes series from 2010. Life-sized wax casts of hard-bodied dancers in meditative poses are arranged around the gallery. The earlier waxworks were in muted colours. Now they’re polychromatic.
The gallery walls and ceiling match these shades exactly, painted in coordinated bands. It creates a seamless environment — as if the sculptures are dissolving into the floor and walls. Fluorescent lights ramp up the intensity.
I found it difficult to focus. The smooth wax figures didn’t seem to encourage scrutiny. Their poses are entirely passive, withholding. It’s as if they’re waiting for us to leave.
To protect the day-glo paint, I had to wear thin disposable blue plastic shoe covers that rustled on the floor. It was a relief to break the silence in such a prosaic way.
With everything the same set of colours, and everything so saturated and integrated, with the total lack of narrative beyond colour and light, my critical mind tried to hook into something, but it couldn’t get a grip. Perhaps this is the experience of crossing Rondinone’s “bridge between everything”. Or maybe, beyond the colour and light, there’s just nothing there.
Ugo Rondinone: the rainbow body is at Sadie Coles HQ (London). 22 May – 02 August 2025