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GLOBAL RAINBOW – 16 Years of Light, Unity & Transformation
2025 marks the 16th year of Global Rainbow, Yvette Mattern’s monumental laser light installation first presented on January 19, 2009—Martin Luther King Jr. Day—projected from the top of 14 Wall Street in New York City. The vibrant beams stretched from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Hudson River, passing over Ground Zero.

The work was inspired by a dramatic rainbow over Walden Pond on January 1, 2007. Moved by its symbolic presence, Mattern envisioned the rainbow as a universal sign of hope, linking it to Thoreau’s ideals of nature, transcendence, and personal awakening.

Global Rainbow follows in the tradition of Land, Environmental, and Sky Art, echoing the legacies of Dennis Oppenheim, Otto Piene, James Turrell, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Using seven parallel beams representing the spectrum of natural light, the installation “paints the sky” in a minimalist yet powerful sculptural gesture—poetic, ephemeral, and unifying.

The visual style is also influenced by the dystopian futurism of Blade Runner, touching on themes of overpopulation, environmental crisis, and the human search for meaning in a shifting world.

Since 2009, Global Rainbow has traveled the globe—illuminating skies over London, Berlin, Sydney, Mexico City, and more—as a symbol of peace, resilience, and collective healing. It draws upon global mythology, from Norse to Hawaiian and Native American beliefs, where rainbows serve as bridges between realms and symbols of spiritual transformation.

In 2025, Global Rainbow was presented in Malibu, California, in the aftermath of recent wildfires. The beams traced fire paths through the region, transforming a landscape marked by devastation into a radiant symbol of recovery and renewal.

With the support of artists, community leaders, and institutions, Global Rainbow continues to connect cities and people around the world—offering a luminous expression of hope, unity, and the transformative power of art.