In his New York Times piece, “Art Canvases That Include Shag Carpet“, Patricia Leigh Brown describes the NadaDada Motel, “a jubilantly unpretentious art event in which some 100 artists rent rooms at two of the city’s vintage hotels and motels and temporarily transform nicotine-infused rooms into art.” As you might imagine, this “homage to Reno’s unsung motel heritage” renders authenticity through diffuse genres.
But what struck me is how the artists simply pay their $150 a night or so for the length of the show, and then take it all down again. Wouldn’t the motels be able to charge much more than their going rate if the rooms, even just a few, were art-infused in such a heritage-honoring way? Ok, it might not work for the room with the weird performance artist who stapled a dress to the walls with her in it, but for everything else, it would make for a much more engaging, and authentically perceived, experience.
If not the Town House Motor Lodge or the El Cortez Hotel in Reno, some hotel should pick up on this idea. It reminds me of the 21C Museum Hotel that Glenn Taylor (of Glenn Funeral Home in Owensboro, KY) told me about at a recent engagement, where the Louisville hotel is a contemporary art museum.
It also reminded me of one of those wild & crazy ideas Jim had a while back: Home Depot should create the Home Depot Hotel. They wouldn’t have to build it all, you see, just enough so that you could check in, don your tool bag, and start finishing your room! How wonderfully authentic that would be for Home Depot — and for those whose own craftwork and artwork ended up making the place a reality. I’m thinking such performance art is not that wild & crazy after all. . . .
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