Just like the guests at Alfred Hitchcock’s hotel in Psycho, the fate of Los Angeles’ very own Bates Motel is sealed. Officially known as the Sunset Pacific Motel, the Downtown property has been abandoned and derelict for so long that residents have given it the Bates Motel nickname in recognition of its eerie appearance but also out of affection for what is an important part of the neighbourhood cityscape. It’s scheduled for demolition however, but not before one last act of drama under the direction of artist Vincent Lamouroux.
Projection is a recently completed intervention from Lamouroux and Please Do Not Enter which saw the old property given an even spookier appearance. The Frenchman used a eco-friendly whitewash to completely seal the structure, ossifying it with a new calcium-like coating that formed a ghostly contrast to the blue sky of springtime L.A.. The whitewash, which also covered the surrounding palm trees, was designed to disappear over the course of two weeks, with the gradual degradation documented by Lamouroux as an investigation of permanence and impermanence in the modern urban setting, of time and decay, and of man’s interaction with the natural world.
Vincent Lamouroux, Projection, 2015
Photo by Guillaume Onimus
Courtesy of Please Do Not Enter and Vincent Lamouroux
© Guillaume Onimus
Vincent Lamouroux, Projection, 2015
Photo by Guillaume Onimus
Courtesy of Please Do Not Enter and Vincent Lamouroux
© Guillaume Onimus
Vincent Lamouroux, Projection, 2015
Photo by Guillaume Onimus
Courtesy of Please Do Not Enter and Vincent Lamouroux
© Guillaume Onimus
