Rainbow of Desires

Do rainbows always have a positive connotation? Jiang Zhi’s Rainbow—Out of Service 4 uses neon signs to piece together this natural wonder and explores the complex relationship between reality and imaginary in consumer culture.

As an atmospheric phenomenon, rainbows offer more than chromatic pleasure. They symbolise clear skies after rain, inspiring us to look forward to future happiness. But when man-made objects replace this natural spectacle, do they still inspire the same joy?

At first glance, Jiang Zhi’s Rainbow—Out of Service 4 seems to show the enchanting sight of a magnificent rainbow stretching across the Himalayan sky. On closer inspection, we see the rainbow actually comprises neon store signs, casinos, pawnshops, restaurants, and hotels. Jiang Zhi created the scene by digitally altering a landscape photograph of Himalayas with commercial signs, giving the impression that Himalayas is part of the advertisement, its monumentality and mysteriousness igniting our desire to travel. Furthermore, the artificiality of the ‘rainbow’—this natural wonder transformed into an accumulation of consumer signs—introduces a staggering visual contrast and breaks the beautiful fantasy suggested by the landscape, prompting viewers to reconsider the implications of consumerism on nature.

Born in Hunan in 1971, Jiang worked as a reporter and editor in Shenzhen and Beijing from 1995 to 2005. His professional roles inspired him to incorporate the rhetoric and poetry of literature into photography and video as he reflects on reality and lived experiences. In his 1997 work Fly, Fly, the camera follows a ‘flying’ hand around a cramped and messy apartment. With French composer Jules Massenet’s sentimental Meditation playing in the background, the video expresses the subject’s desire to escape their living conditions. In contrast to his earlier work, which focuses on the emotions and lives of individuals, Jiang’s Rainbow series explores how impressions created by mass media influence people’s daily consciousness and instinctive desires.

In 1967, French philosopher Guy Debord proposed that modern society is a spectacle society, in which images dominate, determine, and replace reality.^[1] Debord postulates that after the Second World War, society has undergone drastic changes, and commodities are no longer valued by their functions, but by media-mediated images. Advertisements that flood television and mass media create a vivid illusion of the world through colourful and enticing images to evoke people’s unbridled desires. Just like the deceptively appealing mountains and the ever-present rainbow in Rainbow—Out of Service 4, the visual pleasure they provide obscures real issues in the Himalayas, such as pollution, glacial melting, and environmental destruction caused by excessive tourism. In this spectacle society, people become prisoners of fantasy, distanced from reality and their true needs.

By replacing the natural happiness represented by the rainbow with the visual pleasure and joy derived from commodified gratification, the work encourages viewers to realise that we are living in a world filled with imaginary images. We may believe we are enchanted by the beautiful scenery, but in reality, we are controlled by our own greed and desires. In Jiang’s words, ‘Our desires may not have grown weaker or stronger, but now, they connect with increasing alacrity, like a large, illusory bridge. We can walk from one side to the other side, only to discover that the beginning and the end are exactly the same.’