ホテル Hotel – Surrogates (*reads: “hotel-hotel – surrogates”) is a photographic long-term project consisting of over 3000+ constructed lens-based images of self-made small-scale puppets, making use of the interchangeability of living people and lens-based images of puppet-surrogates of them.
It is a fictive documentary of a group of residents of a long-residency hotel in a large unnamed city in USA, exhibited in form of a mass photo installation, a 20 min slide-show, and a photo-book “NADJA – The Lover’s Flower” (*currently dummy book.)
The project sources in photography by Nan Goldin’, in particular, the “Ballad of Sexual Dependency” (originally a slide-show) and contemporaries s.a. Larry Clark, Peter Hujar and others, and the mythicized life in the HOTEL CHELSEA, and the reaction of the high-end art market in particular in USA to this category of photography.
As an immigrant to USA from central Europe, one of the first things I noticed in USA is the drastic segregation between all kinds of different social groups in America, and with this, a strong class, if not a caste system. In some situations is so intense that people from different social groups do not speak to each other or threaten each other’s life. Coming from UK to USA, showing at the time my painting in NYC, I experienced a down-up dynamic that is also manifested in language between wealthy people, the collectors of “high”-end artwork, and “lower” classes, which creates the irony that most artists are not wealthy; the relationship is exclusionary.
Considering a photograph of a person as a form of surrogate for the actual person, it seems a contradiction that high-end art collectors are willing to pay top prices for images depicting ultimately very poor people and display them in their living spaces, so why here this form of social inclusion, which seems to be a visual invitation to be part of the group?
Eventually, I understood, the attraction is not geared to poverty, addiction and misery, but to freedom from another kind of misery rooted in America’s superrich lives, lacking contentedness and social honesty. But the images also serve as memorabilia for youth, passion, and the unawareness that youth is fleeting and with it the intimate friendships of youth, although the fact that someone took a series of photographs in these moments of bliss indicates the opposite, an awareness of loss. I understood the ownership of these images is supposed to display “I am one of them”, expressing some desire and reassurance to be something one is not by displaying alleged visual evidence, also the reassurance of not being part of the activators of great social injustice. However, truth doesn’t stop being the truth just because we don’t say it, or because we say something different.
ホテル Hotel is a vast and complex project, not only because of the gigantic amount of images it contains (far too many to post them all on a website), and the long time span invested in creating it. It is interesting to realize how different groups of people may read these photographs in different ways, and how individual viewers based on personal association had very strong emotional reactions to it. These seem intensified through the use of puppets as models, because the puppets, being not real persons, but place-holders with just some basic guidelines what kind of person s/he stood for, allow the viewer to mentally substitute them with whoever the puppet reminds him of.
I have written several essays throughout this project, but it would take books to write everything down. The project was so all-consuming that at some point I had to cut it off with force and move on to other things and another stage in my process.
ホテル Hotel – Surrogates – Italy premiere @ KromArt Gallery in Rome (Dec 2017)
Dal 14 dicembre al 21 dicembre 2017 Vernissage giovedì 14 dicembre ore 18.30 Orari: Da lunedì al venerdì dalle
ホテル Hotel – Surrogates – show at PH21 Gallery Budapest Dec ’16 / Jan ’17
http://www.ph21gallery.com/keller-hotel-hotel © photo: Krisztina Domján – Josiane Keller solo exhibition 2016/17
ホテル Hotel – Surrogates – photo installation at Gallery Yaso-Parabolica-bis in Tokyo, Dec ’16/ Jan ’17
To view a short video clip featuring the exhibition in Tokyo please click HERE http://www.yaso-peyotl.com/archives/2016/12/jos
ホテル Hotel – Surrogates: ナジャ NADJA – the Lover’s Flower – puppet of a contemporary photo book
Sample pages from photo book of “NADJA – the Lover’s Flower” (ナジャ), a “puppet of a contemp
ホテル Hotel – Kiss – Chiaki and Starfish (2016)
Josiane Keller “Kiss – Chiaki and Starfish” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Billy picking up his hat (2016)
Josiane Keller “Billy picking up his hat” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Starfish with dinosaur shadow 2 (2017)
Josiane Keller “Starfish with dinosaur shadow 2” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – eating cupcakes (2016)
Josiane Keller “eating cupcakes” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – ChoCho’s legs and Muschi 2 (2016)
Josiane Keller “ChoCho’s legs and Muschi 2” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Starfish walking on the beach (2017)
Josiane Keller “Starfish walking on the beach” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – nursing on the sofa (2016)
Josiane Keller “nursing on the sofa” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Chiaki holding a snake 4 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Chiaki holding a snake 4” (2016
ホテル Hotel – riding the donkey 1 (2018)
Josiane Keller “riding the donkey 1” (2018)
ホテル Hotel – Edie in the door frame 2 (2017)
Josiane Keller “Edie in the door frame 2” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – Edie’s back (2017)
Josiane Keller “Edie’s back” (2018)
ホテル Hotel – ChoCho’s birthday picnic – Larry and Molly (2016)
Josiane Keller “ChoCho’s birthday picnic – Larry and Molly” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Alice in the hotel bed with lights from the window (2016)
Josiane Keller “Alice in the hotel bed with lights from the window” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – lieber Gott böse (2016)
Josiane Keller “lieber Gott böse” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Jan philosophizing (2016)
Josiane Keller “Jan philosophizing” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – contact sheet Fabienne (2016)
Josiane Keller “contact sheet Fabienne” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Edie 6 (2017)
Josiane Keller “Edie 6” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – Chiaki outside (2016)
Josiane Keller “Chiaki outside” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – riding a donkey (2018)
Josiane Keller “riding a donkey” (2018)
ホテル Hotel – Billy picking up his hat 3 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Billy picking up his hat 3” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Starfish and Chiaki leaving the clinic (2016)
Josiane Keller “Starfish and Chiaki leaving the clinic” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Chiaki after the abortion (2016)
Josiane Keller “Chiaki after the abortion” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Laila and her dad 4 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Laila and her dad 4” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – ChoCho’s foot on the toilet (2016)
Josiane Keller “ChoCho’s foot on the toilet” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Molly and Starfish by the gas stop at night 8 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Molly and Starfish by the gas stop at night 8” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – $1 Larry on Sunset 4 (2017)
Josiane Keller “$1 Larry on Sunset 4” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – Larry smoking 4 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Larry smoking 4” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Edie showering (2017)
Josiane Keller “Edie showering” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – Chiaki (2016)
Josiane Keller “Chiaki” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Edie in the breakfast room (2017)
Josiane Keller “Edie in the breakfast room” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – dad’s back (2016)
Josiane Keller “dad’s back” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Billy’s binge 28 – fly on the toilet (2016)
Josiane Keller “Billy’s binge 28 – fly on the toilet” (2016)