Dezeen Magazine

Color Factory NYC

The Color Factory brings spectrum of camera-ready artworks to NYC

Instagram sensation The Color Factory has arrived in New York City, where visitors can interact with a myriad of tonal installations and take photos in a giant blue ball pit.

After an eight-month stint in San Francisco, the exhibition has taken over 20,000 square feet (1,860 square metres) of space in Soho for a yet-determined time period.

Color Factory

The team, headed by founder Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day, enlisted a host of artists to contribute works – some of which have a local twist.

"A talented roster of collaborators [...] will tell their unique colour stories and engage the senses in unexpected ways," said a statement from Color Factory.

Color Factory

Visitors arrive to the Spring Street address and enter into a foyer area, where poetry about New York's colours by Won McIntosh is written on the wall, and fabric ribbons installed by Emmanuelle Moureaux create a rainbow effect overhead.

Each guest is registered and given a card with a QR code, which they can scan along their journey to take photos at various stations, without holding their smartphones. The images are emailed almost instantly.

Color Factory

The experiences are encountered room by room, connected at times by stripy corridors or snack stops. One space is filled with balloons that are buffeted around by wind machines, which visitors can also take advantage of for hairography.

Another room challenges pairs to draw each other, while a further area features glockenspiel blocks for creating a musical cacophony.

Color Factory

Next, a personality test in the form of dual-choice infographic drawn across the floor and walls leads to five different photo booths, each illuminated in a different bold hue.

After the shoot, screens prescribe a specific shade of the chosen colour, which is then meant to inform dance moves on the light-up floor in the adjacent disco-themed space.

Color Factory

The New York-specific elements include a project by Andrew Kuo, who made observations about life in the city, and asked locals which statements they agreed with.

He then depicted their answers as pie charts, which cover large spinning disks – intended to be sat or laid on so ceiling-mounted cameras can take "boomerang" videos as they twist.

Color Factory

The exhibition climaxes in a large room entirely coloured pale blue, where visitors can frolic in a huge ball pit and take photos with more overhead cameras. Stepped seats are provided for spectators, and small booths offer gelato and colourful knick-knacks.

Before they leave, visitors are given a map of various colour-related artworks across Lower Manhattan that they can seek out in their own time.

Color Factory

The Color Factory is the latest a series of installations targeted at Instagrammers determined to snap the perfect pictures.

Others include the Museum of Ice Cream, which took over several US cities with candy-themed spaces – although the Miami outpost was fined after its plastic sprinkles were found littering the streets.

Color Factory

Artist CJ Hendry also recently created a series of single-coloured rooms in a Brooklyn warehouse, while several of the installations at Milan design week in April were geared towards users of the image-sharing platform.

The Color Factory NYC is located at 251 Spring Street, and opens to the public Monday 20 August 2018.

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