The Anticipation of Rain

The Anticipation of Rain is fine artist Naima Karim’s personal reflection on creative inspiration and plea for global collaboration in a time of climate change.

The Anticipation of rain creator, Naima’s artwork celebrates the changing beauty of skies, but in particular the dynamic nature of skies, the arrival of the monsoon, and its significance to her homeland, Bangladesh. Her fascination with the power and beauty of the natural world was born from a time in her life when she was left temporarily paralysed by a virus. Unable to move for over a year, she spent her time studying and staring at the sky in awe and wonder as it morphed in colour and form above her.

The Anticipation of Rain is a seven-minute, linear virtual reality experience, it utilises 3D digital representations of Naima’s unique brushwork, two spacially designed scents associted with monsoon rain, and a rich and immersive sound design to represent the arrival of a monsoon storm. Having grown up in Bangladesh, the South Asian monsoon is a joyous, exciting, and romantic experience for Naima. Naima’s voice guides the audience through her moving lived experience and provokes questioning around climate change.

Climate change has made the South Asia monsoon increasingly erratic, causing extreme rainfall and drought in equal measure across the Indian subcontinent. In low-lying Bangladesh, the arrival of the monsoon, once associated with hope and renewal, is now a time of fear and loss. Naima has hope that her monsoon rain will inspire all to see, love, and protect our beautiful world.