Washington Artists Bring Art to Motel Rooms

PULLMAN, Wash. – Eleven regional artists and architects will converge at downtown Pullman’s Cougarland Motel March 2 for a site-specific “happening”, titled “In(n) and Out of Nowhere.” The art event will be open to the public between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Each artist has been invited to transform and re-contextualize a motel room at Cougarland, constructing an installation that explores themes of travel, transience, isolation, desire and the boundary between public and private space.

The objective of the project is to take art out of the traditional venue of the gallery and museum, and present an art audience with new ways to consider commonplace objects, materials and spaces. Curated by Samantha DiRosa, assistant professor of Digital Media at Washington State University, “”In(n) and Out of Nowhere promises to be one of the most intriguing art events presented in the Palouse.

The artists involved, who currently reside in Seattle, the Tri-Cities and the Palouse region, include Gabriel Brown, Samantha DiRosa, David Drake, Doug Gast, Jolie B. Kaytes, Perri Lynch, Nik Meisel, Mary Rothlisberger, Joseph Stengel, Randall Teal and Kristin Tollefson.

Each artist is offered one room to work with. Projects will be installed between check-in time and 6:30 p.m. on March 2, and rooms will be returned to their original state by check-out time the following day. The artists are not permitted to remove any contents from the room.

Those who come to “In(n) and Out of Nowhere” will encounter a variety of media, including sculpture, sound art, video and performance. In a project titled “Inn House,” for example, Moscow artist David Drake will occupy an inflatable house-structure placed on a bed for the duration of the event, to speak to the idea of a “home away from home”. Seattle-based artist Perri Lynch’s sound installation will include an audio recording of two dreams that call and respond to each other. In a video installation titled “Perceived Existenze,” which will span two motel rooms, Pullman artist Joe Stengel will use objects and video to explore surveillance’s role in our daily lives. Viewers will also encounter 400 houses constructed from corrugated cardboard, appropriated film audio that addresses social taboos and issues of personal space, among other things, and video monitors that mediate reality.

This motel project originated with art professor Leon Johnson and other art faculty at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where DiRosa completed her graduate coursework. Art happenings became popular in the 1960s, but even now live on the margins of art-making and experience.

“Events such as this that exist outside of traditional exhibition spaces, that rely upon the site to create meaning, and that depend upon audience interaction to function, are becoming increasingly prevalent in contemporary art,” DiRosa said.

“’In(n) and Out of Nowhere’ is a unique project for the Pullman community. Art events in Pullman usually take place on campus, but this project serves to bring a WSU sponsored art event into downtown Pullman. This is also an opportunity to deliver an important contemporary art dialogue to WSU students and Palouse residents,” she said.

Cougarland Motel is located on 120 W. Main St., near the intersection of Main and Grand, just behind Sakura restaurant. Parking can be found on-street or in the motel’s parking lot.

Funding for this exhibition is provided by the Visual Performing and Literary Arts Committee and The Forst Endowed Fine Arts Visiting Artist Program.

For more information please contact DiRosa at (509) 335-3180 or ssgoetz@wsu.edu.