in 2018 I was Commissioned and purchased by Revival Hotel, in Baltimore, for an open stairwell in their public space.
This project was inspired by Baltimore Album Quilts which date back to 1840 and began with women in church getting together and sharing patterns. The quilts tell stories about the lives of those women and the lives of their friends and family. They are built on a lexicon of symbols that have a long history and specific meanings.
I took the same style and visual storytelling as the Baltimore Album Quilts and turning it into a large-scale, collaged wallpaper piece, made up of hundreds of remixed photographs for the open stairwell of the new Revival Hotel.
In keeping with the tradition and symbolics of Album Quilts, I created on a patchwork of poetic compositions to portray a narrative. However, I am giving it a contemporary bent by using present-day imagery to make my blocks and set. Each part of my design tells a story about my life as an artist, traveler, mother, and member of a global community.
But also, this is a work being made, site specifically, for a hotel in Baltimore and I am an outsider to the city. Therefore, I was interested in representing the visitor as well, in 3 different ways. I wanted to explore what it feels like to be in a space that is different from your own but that is made to comfort you, what it feels like to explore a new city like Baltimore for the first time and what if feels like to be part of our technology-obsessed, contemporary culture.
Revival Hotel 101 W Monument St Baltimore, MD 21201
Installed: March 9th, 2018
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