Something to Stare At (2006)
An floral pattern abstracted from prominent landmarks around the city of Linz, painted on the ceiling of a hotel room.
A standing lamp projects the missing details of an abstract floral pattern painted on the hotel room’s ceiling. The hotel guest’s gaze wanders while lying in bed and begins to make sense of the shapes as the patterns projected by the lamp rotate and as time passes and she becomes familiar with the local scenery. Installed at the Spitz Hotel, Linz.
To every place there are certain things specific, things that over time have become personal to natives, are landmarks for foreigners and attractions for tourists. There are many shapes and details to the architecture and layout of a place that we do not see without all the people and history and colour that surround it. And yet the recognition of the simplest and most reduced similarity can remind us of whole landscapes.
By abstracting shapes from Linz I want to create a repetitive pattern, like those covering the seats of public transport. The patterns that you stare at until you recognise their rhythm and make out their individual elements and a story to go with it all forms in your head.
Pictures on Flickr
This project was completed thanks to the lamp design and realization by Magdalena Reiter