Chambers Hotel Response
Chambers Luxury Art Hotel was a very unique experience! I enjoyed many of the works there including the stairwell graffiti, Damien Hirst’s spin painting, “Blinded by the Light� in the lobby area and others.
However, one piece that struck me in a different way. Named “L.W.S.2.� and created by Ashley Bickerton in 2001, Chambers displayed this large piece in the bar area. The artist used both screen print and painting to create this work of a man in a room with all his technology. The man is portrayed as a businessman, wearing dress clothes and putting on a tie. Around the room lie many signs of our technologically-advanced society: a cell phone, laptop, television, DVD’s, CD’s, etc. The man also has a blow-up doll in his bed and pornography smothers the wall in background.
I found this piece really moving because it reflects our society very accurately in my mind. As time goes by and I get older, I am realizing how much many people, including myself dislike dependence (in even the smallest ways) on other people. This picture definitely demonstrates how people live in order to escape depending on others. Bickerton even used the light shining through the blinds on the windows to compliment the idea that depending only on ourselves actually makes us a slave to other things (such as technology). The light shines in stripes and lands on the back wall of the piece. The lines cross and create a pattern that resembles prison bars.
An interesting aspect to this work is the man’s facial expression. It is very hard to guess what he is thinking or feeling. I feel that the artist may have left it that way in order for the viewer to wonder. One knows that the man probably isn’t truly happy (due to his time only with inanimate objects) but is he showing temporary happiness, frustration, apathy or pained realization? I liked this piece mostly because I feel that it is very accurate in portraying both our society and parts of myself. To me, it said "Living the way this man does makes for an extremely unhappy and unfulfilling life."