THE LIBERATING CALL OF *THE MOTEL* AESTHETIC
The transient space gives us some permanent lessons
IN THIS ISSUE:
What is the “REAPPRAISED MOTEL” aesthetic?
A report from OUR MOTEL CORRESPONDENT OLIVER WAINWRIGHT, a.k.a. one of the world’s most feared architecture critics, who weighs in (with British spelling) on a popular motel favorite
MOTELLY STUFF TO BUY that is for sale right now in the Los Angeles metro area
FOR NEW SUBS: ETERNAL THANKS. Here are some upcoming Issues you can look forward to:
EXQUISITE CHAOS (unpacked but not organized); the design influence of EGGS AND CIGARETTES (both are power players); PINE and its February 2023 turning point; life in CHAINS
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Dearest Snoops,
As Original Readers will know, per our discussion on florals, we try not to discuss TREND but rather try to keep our beautiful eyes OPEN, SEE THE WORLD, and digest insights on the domestic space.
Today, our gaze is squarely on the MOTEL.
It emerged from a tip by FOR SCALE super-pal MEARA D. It is this recent design work:
The reference is UNMISTAKABLE, but it would be a grand mistake to call this R*TRO (a banned word), for the appeal is entirely contemporary.
What we’re seeing in the above is a massive Reappraisal of MOTEL, and similarly its inevitable arrival into the domestic space.
WHAT MOTEL MEANS:
The motel represents Ultimate Balance: transient but welcoming (or welcomed); cheap/fast but composed; Everything You Need but Nothing Worth Stealing. It is a resting place, but one only to fuel further forward travel.
STYLE NOTES, FROM THE SALLY BREER EXAMPLE ABOVE:
fitted bedcover in “Cheapest Fabric”-style fabric,
short-wide headboard often as just a painted wall,
floor-to-ceiling curtains
“REAPPRAISED MOTEL” PHILOSOPHY RELEVANT FOR THE DOMESTIC REALM, in order of MOST to LEAST liberating:
In summary:
LIMIT TIME SPENT ON DECISIONS
LIBERATE YOURSELF FROM LIVING PLANTS
LIBERATE YOURSELF FROM IDENTIFYING DETAILS (The Edward Hopper approach)
EXPANDED:
LIMITE TIME SPENT ON DECISIONS
The motel, unlike the hotel, is generally a one-night stay situation, it’s an EN ROUTE experience, and as a result produces interiors that aren’t so goddamn try-hard. (A critical lesson.)The best Motels look super duper and yet time spent on design was usually limited to ONE DECISION, max.
E.g., One element of “REAPPRAISED MOTEL” is that everything is in one color (possibly two; patterns excluded) – not as an aesthetic choice, but as an ease-of-choices-making choice.
Some historic evidence: ”ORIGINAL MOTEL” requires no history lesson, but suffice it to say that the great artistic minds of the American canon were entranced. Example: this image by William Eggleston, from his signature LOS ALAMOS portfolio (‘60s-’70s stuff):
Here’s another example:
And don’t THOSE share so much DNA with THIS (below)?! A rich AF “urban penthouse” (not my words) from the same time period, as found in the exceptional sourcebook “DECORATION U.S.A.”. The lesson: don’t overthink. Underthinking and Overthinking result in the same result, so underthink.
LIBERATE YOURSELF FROM LIVING PLANTS
Don’t burden yourself with Plant Care; the domestic greenery market is a grift. Recently, we were introduced to a kind of World Wide Web plant nursery where little trees were “sourced” and prices were “upon request”. FYI nature grows trees and takes care of them for free. Go outside.
The Reappraised Motel approach values “NO UPKEEP”. In this, you are free to disappear for weeks on end, embarking on a creative psycho-spiritual journey. Home is a concept; plants are bondage.LIBERATE YOURSELF FROM IDENTIFYING DETAILS
We are BURDENED by identity performance (see: S*CIAL MEDIA). Few motels try to create “identity” (where hotels are desperate to); why bother? They have purpose, and reinforce that exclusively. See Edward Hopper’s 1957 WESTERN MOTEL painting (below).
I want to quote YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY here (where this painting is to be found):”… an anonymous motel bedroom becomes a symbol of the mobility and rootlessness of modern life”
the setting produces a “masterful simplicity, yet one that is layered with psychological ambiguity”
“She appears to be waiting”
In summary: SHE HAS SOMEWHERE TO BE, and maybe she doesn’t know where that is! And maybe she’s unsure it’ll be good! The motel was solace, but one serving to propel her into the vastness of “next”. And, we like this sentiment.
MOTEL MAGNETISM IS BOUNDLESS AND BORDERLESS:
OUR MOTEL CORRESPONDENT OLIVER WAINWRIGHT (ARCHITECTURE CRITIC OF THE PEOPLE) MOVED CONTINENTS TO ABSORB THEIR ENERGY
BY MOTEL CORRESPONDENT OLIVER WAINWRIGHT (PRESERVED IN U.K. SPELLING)
“Like earlier generations of English intellectuals who taught themselves Italian in order to read Dante in the original,” wrote the critic Reyner Banham in the 1970s, “I learned to drive to read Los Angeles in the original.”
My beard may have yet to reach Banhamian magnificence, but I did finally learn to drive last year, before temporarily moving to LA – primarily so that I could experience the unbound joy of America’s roadside motels.
From their flickering neon signs and pastel colour palettes, to their sticky carpets and stagnant pools, they embody the quintessential romantic dream of life on the road. They glow on the side of the highway like ethereal apparitions, occupying a twilight world of out-of-order ice machines, weak drip coffee, and plastic cups in the bathroom that are so cheaply made they almost dissolve in your hand.
Avoid self-consciously “vintage” places like the overpriced Ace Hotel in Palm Springs – a former motel gussied up with a lobotomised take on midcentury modernism, crawling with twats – and opt instead for the grungy dives on the outskirts, or those miraculous outposts that emerge twinkling on the horizon in the middle of the desert, just as you’re about to run out of gas.
It should never cost more than $100, and you should be able to smell the stale weed when you walk in. If a poolside fight hasn’t broken out by the morning, move on.
THE FURNITURE (INCL. STUFF TO BUY):
We must first praise a Canadian design, because the FOR SCALE homeland really does deliver from time to time.
In 1972, they delivered the motel’s outdoor staple, which has been keenly adopted by savvy home dwellers as “domestic”. This is the SOLAIR CHAIR, a perfectly idiotic name, originally sold in a mediocre DEPARTMENT STORE CHAIN!, and given all this has a suitably SIMPLE look:
We’d like to introduce you, next, to some MOTELLY STUFF for sale. We know you’re Shoppers.
EXHIBIT A:
FOR SCALE pal Jacob, whose MOBILI VINTAGE unselfconsciously and with great reverence to these objects tends very much to the REAPPRAISED MOTEL vibe.
Plaster floor lamps that are both A Choice but also quite neutral. WHY “REAPRRAISED MOTEL”? Nothing delicate (frankly you could probably paint these); Come in a set (the vibe is “of the Masses”; unique is elite)
EXHIBIT B:
These from ROLEPLAY L.A., some Georges Briard mosaic side tables. VERY motel! WHY “REAPPRAISED MOTEL”? Can easily exist within a number of single-color environments while themselves being multi-color (CHAMELEONIC).
EXHIBIT C:
Sticking to a theme of MUTLI-COLORED THINGS for a SINGLE-COLOR environment, we present florals. These are goddamn VICO MAGISTRETTI, so bow down. And, imagine them in a Yellow room, or Blue room, or green, red, etc.
These are sold by MIDCENTURYLA. These rarely have such joyful fabric, usually they are in a kind of dumpy blue.
For some MOTEL context to floral:
MAIN LESSON: Wherever you are, you’re passing through. The REAPPRAISED MOTEL celebrates this.
Until next week (where we look at EXQUISITE CHAOS).
LOVE AND GOOD LUCK,