Theres something alluring and storied about hotel life. Rock stars, beat poets and actors take up residence in hotels. Hotels symbolize so many things, from seedy to decadent, including easy wish-fulfillment, escape and purgatory.
The Vancouver Art Gallery captures these complexities in its new exhibit: Grand Hotel: Redesigning Modern Life, which opened with a bang on April 13 and will stick around until Sept. 15.
Created exclusively for the VAG, the exhibit is provocative and fascinating; it challenges visitors to consider the ways that the hotel has reflected and created social and cultural change. Insights are organized along four themes: travel, design, social and culture. You also get to hang out in the interior of hotels you might never be able to afford.
Design buffs will appreciate the greats, including Arne Jacobsens legendary design for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, the Waldorf Astoria in New York, the Imperial Hotel inTokyo, and the Flamingo inLas Vegas. In the cultural section, you feel like youre on the set of a Sofia Coppola movie (Somewhere, 2010) peeking into the the Chelsea and Algonquin hotels in New York, as well as the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. The exhibit also shows how iconic works, including Burroughs Naked Lunch, Warhols Chelsea Girls, and Dylans Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, all owe their creation to hotel life.
