Rainbow Body: Human Condition

Curated by Johnny Wolf alongside works by Jenny Holzer and Marilyn Minter, Los Angeles, 2016

Presented as part of Human Condition, a group exhibition staged in an abandoned hospital in Los Angeles, Millie Brown’s durational performance Rainbow Body took place in the hospital’s former morgue. The show, curated by Johnny Wolf, brought together works by leading contemporary artists including Jenny Holzer, Marilyn Minter, Damien Hirst, Maurizio Cattelan, and Andres Serrano.

Staged in an abandoned hospital in Los Angeles, Millie Brown presented Rainbow Body, a performance installation sited within the hospital’s former morgue. The work explored the transformation of energy, both physical and metaphysical, within a space marked by its history of death, illness, and transition.

Drawing from the Tibetan Buddhist concept of the “rainbow body” a phenomenon in which an enlightened being dissolves into light at the moment of death, Brown engaged the space as a vessel for spiritual transmutation. Over the course of the performance, she used crystal singing bowls to create a resonant soundscape, shifting the morgue’s energy field through frequency and vibration. Her presence became a conduit between realms, using sound as a medium to cleanse, elevate, and recontextualize the atmosphere of the space.

Visitors entered the space individually, stepping into a charged stillness where time seemed suspended. There was no spectacle, only presence. The performance became a ritual of quiet transmutation, where death gave way to vibration, and silence gave rise to resonance. Through subtle gestures and sound, Rainbow Body transformed the morgue into a sanctum of energetic renewal, offering a contemplative space where endings were reimagined as thresholds, and matter dissolved into light.