Big, brash and attention seeking are adjectives
commonly used to describe hoardings, let alone a city that is reflected in the
very make-up of its landscape. The Los Angeles skyline is famously known for
its billboard culture across its sprawling topography with a rich history of
roadside temptations aimed at residents and transients alike. Nowhere is this
vie for attention more prolific in the city than on Sunset Boulevard, which cuts
through L.A. from East Downtown to the Pacific Ocean on the Westside.
Artist impression: 'Projection', 2015
On a stretch of the boulevard running through the
neighbourhood of Silver Lake, French artist Vincent Lamouroux will transform
the skyline this April and May with a unique site-specific intervention at the
former Sunset Pacific Motel. The site, located on the corner of Sunset
Boulevard and Bates Avenue, has been the scene of much unrest in the community
for over a decade. Having earned the unfortunate moniker of the ‘Bates Motel’–
less for its address and more for its reputation à la
Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ during its neglected course – the three-storey building
has been boarded up and fenced off since 2002. With all of its shortcomings
however, there remains much nostalgia for the motel, which retains its original
futurist sign topped with decorative antenna globes. Development is rife across
L.A. and the residents of Silver Lake are no different to other neighbourhoods
who are voicing concern when applications for new development tread on
community conservation. Demolition of the motel was granted in 2009 and the
future of the site is in its final stages. In the meantime, Lamouroux will
shroud the motel and its adjoining accoutrements of billboard, vegetation and
palm trees in a lime whitewash, in what will be his most ambitious work of art
to date: Projection.
The Paris-based artist has known the site for nearly
fourteen years, witnessing its dilapidation year after year. He began to think
about creating an artwork in L.A. inspired by his minimalist practice that used
the ecologically-safe and biodegradable solution of a limewash, previously applied
in several public artworks in France, such as in a forest with ‘Aire 23’ in
2010 as well as interior interventions in ‘Attenuate’ and ‘Passage’ in 2014. “This
particular site was the best place to conceive the ideas that encapsulated
everything that interested me: this city and its landscape; the idea of space
and driving your car; these elements in conjunction with the building, the palm
trees, Sunset Boulevard and the Sunset Pacific Motel sign”, explains Lamouroux.
Familiarity, perception and ephemerality are key elements to the work. He
continues, “we are constantly looking for symmetry and something we can connect
with in the past: something we already know”. The action of whitewashing is a
conceptual means for the artist to, “free the landscape in time and space… to
make something appear in the middle of the urban landscape”. ‘Projection’ will
be the first time he will work with an exterior architectural space – “when I’m
working in an interior space, there is a frame: the walls, the floor and the
ceiling. On this project I am outdoors but the concept of the frame remains:
the horizontality of L.A., the fence around the motel. The frame is something
that I will define myself by playing with these physical properties”.
Lamouroux believes the palm trees on the site, which
line this entire section of the boulevard, will draw the eye of drivers and
passersby down to ground level to reveal not only the extraordinary matte white covering in full
but of a building that has lost its power to engage since its all too familiar,
neglected state. The platinum palm trees against the famously blue L.A. sky
will interrupt the horizon and create an impressive visual amongst their
natural counterparts. While the whitewash invites a revaluation of our
surroundings, it also performs a negative gesture of erasing the appearance of
the familiar. Nicolas Libert, co-founder of curated space Please Do Not Enter
in Downtown L.A., who is producing the installation with the support of
Creative Migration, illustrates how ‘Projection’ represents the story of Sunset
Boulevard: “all the businesses try to catch your eye with huge signs,
billboards, neons – Vincent’s simple manipulation on the appearance of the
building with this whitewash will result in generating a greater statement than
all the other distractions on Sunset. It’s more powerful than any advertising
strategy. This negative gesture will celebrate the architecture and the old way
of life in the city of L.A.”
The artist’s intentions are honestly declared in the artwork’s
title. Inspiration, aspiration and hope are all concepts to be projected onto
the blank architectural canvas. Lamouroux cites society’s unease with change or
transformation as a means of positively reengaging with the greater public – “most
of the time we don’t want to see transformation, but it’s always happening.
Looking at the motel today, it’s definitely not the same as it was fourteen
years ago. It’s degraded in time. I’m trying to beautify this site – to inspire
what is now a lost site”. On why the site is lost to begin with and its future
as a redevelopment, the installation is decidedly apolitical in motive and any
symbolism linked to an all-white surrender, truce or silent statement around
the long-term cultural context of the motel is not to be misinterpreted. “When
Vincent talks about how transformation and change is hard to accept, this is
what is happening now, especially in the Silver Lake community as well as
across many communities of L.A.” Libert explains. “The work is able to be read
in so many ways. Vincent is not taking a position on these issues, but he is
pointing out the idea of appearance and disappearance. ‘Projection’ implies a
screen that one can project what is on one’s mind: one’s dreams, expectations,
nostalgia – it is inevitable that viewers who are struggling with the change in
the community will project a political layer on the artwork”.
For Lamouroux, ’Projection’ is about “something you
carry in your mind”, whether it be passing in your car for a brief moment or
walking and experiencing the building head-on. After two weeks the lime whitewash will gradually
fade, leaving a limited window for visitors to project onto the motel’s all-white
surface. Until then, the site will unquestionably emit a curiosity never before
seen along Sunset Boulevard under the bright Californian light, casting crisp silhouettes. When the sun sets on Sunset, the
artist recognises his artwork’s vitality, avoiding any spectacle come nightfall
– “Sunset Boulevard is saturated with signs in this 24/7 commercial landscape. I
like the idea that the building has to sleep in order to dream. It’s the same
for us; in order to dream we need to rest and this is very much how I want the
building to function”. Little separates entertainment and escapism apart. As 'Projection' wakes from its daily slumber, Lamouroux will take comfort in the fact his work will have plenty of day dreamers in the land where dreams come true.
‘Projection’ will run at 4301 Sunset Boulevard in
Silver Lake, Los Angeles from 26th April to 10th May – viewing is available
around the perimeter of the fenced site on Sunset Boulevard and Bates Avenue.
Follow the hashtag #ProjectionLA on social media for
the duration of the installation for the latest information and images.
I will be live tweeting from the press view this
Sunday 26th April @jmvelardi and on Instagram
@jonathanvelardi.com
Top image courtesy of Please Do Not Enter
