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 – Larry’s shiny butt (2016)
Josiane Keller “Larry’s shiny butt” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – ChoCho’s butterfly tattoo (2017)
Josiane Keller “ChoCho’s butterfly tattoo” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – Billy in the casket 81 – Laila walking off 3 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Billy in the casket 81 – Laila walking off 3” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Molly and Starfish 57 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Molly and Starfish 57” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Larry smoking 3 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Larry smoking 3” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Starfish’s shoes 2 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Starfish’s shoes 2” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Laila with Alexander (2016)
Josiane Keller “Laila with Alexander” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – “Edie by a wall with right arm behind her head” (2017)
Josiane Keller “Edie by a wall with right arm behind her head” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – Chiaki and Starfish making out (2016)
Josiane Keller “Chiaki and Starfish making out” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Vincent on the junkyard (2017)
Josiane Keller “Vincent on the junkyard” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – Billy in the hospital bed 32 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Billy in the hospital bed 32” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Viola on the beach 4 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Viola on the beach 4” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – glorious ChoCho (2016)
Josiane Keller “glorious ChoCho” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – stray dog 15 (2016)
Josiane Keller “stray dog 15” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Larry and Starfish on the beach 4 – Larry’s tattoo (2017)
Josiane Keller “Larry and Starfish on the beach 4 – Larry’s tattoo” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – Josiane Keller – Molly outside at night 13 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Molly outside at night 13” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Molly in the Cafe lifting her hair 2 (2017)
Josiane Keller “Molly in the Cafe lifting her hair 2” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – cold beer – wine – pop 9 (2016)
Josiane Keller “cold beer – wine – pop 9” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – contact sheet family visit (2016)
Josiane Keller “contact sheet family visit” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Josiane Keller – Starfish is back 14 – Starfish and ChoCho 3 (2017)
Josiane Keller “Starfish is back 14 – Starfish and ChoCho 3” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – Orlando memorial evening 4 – Chiaki, Billy and Larry (2016)
Josiane Keller “Orlando memorial evening 4 – Chiaki, Billy and Larry” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Billy with Aztec feather crown 4 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Billy with Aztec feather crown 4” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Edie sleeping 3 (2017)
Josiane Keller “Edie sleeping 3” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – dad holding Alexander (2016)
Josiane Keller “dad holding Alexander” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Molly and Chiaki sitting in a tree on the graveyard 2 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Molly and Chiaki sitting in a tree on the graveyard 2” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Edie sleeping (2017)
Josiane Keller “Edie sleeping” (2017)
ホテル Hotel – Sebastiao Com’Sal by the mountain lake 4 (2016)
Credit Photo Courtesy of Sebastiao Com’Sal “Sebastiao Com’Sal by the mountain lake 4”
ホテル Hotel – Molly in underwear on her bed talking to Starfish 5 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Molly in underwear on her bed talking to Starfish 5” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – a sword and a rose (2016)
Josiane Keller “a sword and a rose” (2016)
ホテル Hotel – Vincent is showing off his tattoo 2 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Vincent is showing off his tattoo 2” (2018)
ホテル Hotel – Starfish on the sofa 3 (2016)
Josiane Keller “Starfish on the sofa 3” (2016)