Drawing a rainbow with Stainless Steel

Sun light turns to the rainbow through prismatic reflection. The various color interference of the surface of stainless steel is caused by the thickness differences of clear oxide film which changes depending upon dipping time in a chemical bath. Naoya Sakagami had the idea that a rainbow colored stainless steel object caught viewers imagination. He had made several monuments with rainbow color since 1982.

Two monuments were placed at the lobby of West Passenger Terminal Haneda Airport in 1993. Blue wings head to the rainbow in the blue sky with great ambitions and come back with rainbow wings after the voyage. “Wings Heading for the Rainbow” was located at South Wing West Passenger Terminal and “Wings Reflecting the Rainbow” was set at North Wing, which are apart from 250m distance, but have a connection between two monuments. 

“Wings Heading for the Rainbow ”was made of NEUES blue colored on perforated embossed stainless steel. “Wings Reflecting the Rainbow” was made of chemical rainbow colored on the same substrate. After the Terminal renovation, “Wings Heading for the Rainbow” was moved to University Concert Hall 2016 and “Wings Reflecting the Rainbow” to Stream Hall 2019. Both locations are owned by Tamagawa Gakuen, which Naoya Sakagami was graduated from.