A 35-Mile Laser Rainbow Illuminates New York As A Memorial To Sandy’s Victims

The laser-beamed art project by artist Yvette Mattern is powerful enough to cross from Manhattan to the storm-devastated neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens, providing a little hope to still-recovering communities that calm is on the way. Last night, New Yorkers looking up into the cloudy sky saw something quite out of the ordinary. Streaming across the skyline was a crisp rainbow, pointing from Manhattan’s west side and headed southeast toward the Rockaways. Pedestrians stopping to snap photos might have been excused in thinking it was a strange natural phenomenon, or some new viral marketing campaign. But the lights--which will be seen for the next two nights over the city, were in fact a memorial for the Victims of Hurricane Sandy. The project, called Global Rainbow After the Storm, by artist Yvette Mattern, is situated in the Standard Hotel, on the High Line. It points t...