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06/22/2009: "(LOUISVILLE) - It�s really a no brainer."
Combine air, space, track lighting, concrete, glass, metal, a cool king-size bed to rest your sleepy head and you�re totally there.
You�ve got what may or may not be your typical hip hotel. However, as I write these oh so urbane words, I�m not in your run of the mill sleek abode. I�m taking up pricy space in this totally hip place.
21C.
My trip here actually began a couple of years ago when I first heard about it. �When I finally decide to visit Louisville for another art trip, I going to stay there,� I thought to myself.
But of course, time and expenses or lack thereof intervened and my arrival was much delayed � but here I am slumping over the keyboard in a thick groove as Marvin Gaye croons, �What�s Goin� On� through the speakers piped in overhead.
I�m sitting in what can only be described as an art gallery because that�s exactly what it is � an art gallery. I�m on the basement floor below and adjacent to the main lobby of the 21C Museum Hotel. Within my line of sight are lookers and gawkers who are pointing and chatting and oohing and aahing. Like me, they�re here for the night or perhaps for a just glimpse of what all the talk is about.
Well, I can�t exactly say it�s the talk of the town because I�m no townie, but it seems that nearly everyone in the art world has heard of this hot spot. Finally, someone dreamed of putting a true, literally down-to-earth art gallery in a hotel � or did they build a hotel around an art gallery? Pick your passion, but both are working like a charm on this art lover. Why wouldn�t it? This is the first of my art trips in which art and lodging didn�t just run parallel or perpendicular, they�re literally hand in hand. The hotel IS the art and the art IS the hotel.
About thirty feet away from me on the opposite wall, I�m drooling over three, long horizontal Mikhael Subotzky (South African) archival pigment photo prints depicting prison situations. They�re �Cell 25,� �Reception� and �Cell 508b,� all studies from inside Voorberg and Pollsmoor Prisons (2004).
In the adjacent room are fourteen of Kara Walker�s refreshingly politically-incorrect framed lithographs. Up until now, I had only seen her work in museums and at the big art fairs, but gazing at them here in a real life setting makes them more accessible.
There are four nice-sized galleries off the main gallery where I�m now sitting. It�s a soaring, brick, steel beamed, white-walled, art loft. Just what the art doctor ordered for inquisitive travelers.
In my time here, visitors have come up and down and criss-crossed the space, marching on the sanctity of my art lodging dream. Their chit-chat is inconsequential, but precisely the point. This is what art SHOULD do. It should force dialogue, however shallow or profound and that chat should happen within the confines of a unique hotel. They just don�t make �em quite like this.
PAUSE
As I pause, I�m looking upward at a gigantic, full-bodied, digital print of a mainly nude woman who looks like Bjork from afar, but I don�t think it is. All I know is while the piped-in music plays Stevie Wonder�s, �Boogie On A Reggae Woman,� I�m smiling at this raven-haired, alabaster beauty with her arms outstretched and her taut breasts in full view with a hint of linen loincloth hugging her lovely hips. She�s standing on a white background, perhaps somewhat Christ-like � or is she mocking Christ? That wouldn�t be very nice. Either way, artist Sukran Moral (Turkish) has made what he calls �Artista� (1994) perfection. Is it Bjork? The way I�m feeling now, it doesn�t matter. She�s gorgeous nonetheless.
The long and short of it is you don�t get this everyday in your run of the mill hip hotel. This is art as art should be seen. I want to take each and every one of these works up to my uber-hip room and then out the door as I depart.
But alas, no such deed will I do. I�ll just remember this place and this space and think that finally someone has done contemporary art the justice it�s due. They�ve made 7th & Main the intersection of lodging and art. There�s art on every floor and in almost every nook and cranny � installation pieces too.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that moments before I checked in, I saw a couple of guys decked out in cream colored suits. I didn�t think much about it until I headed up to my room on the fourth floor (401) and the elevator doors opened. Waiting for the other elevator across the hall was a blonde bride looking as lovely and as modern as could be. With that, a light-bulb went on over my head like the artful lights installed in the elevator ceiling.
�Oh! You must be the bride!� I said. �Yes, Hi!� she replied. �You look lovely. Congratulations,� I said. �Thanks!� she replied, beaming as only young brides can beam. Hmm. Maybe she was merely a model at a photo shoot.
In any event, here�s the real point. Should you hold a wedding or any other special bash in a hip, art hotel? You bet your ass you should. Each one gives the other greater purpose.
Assuming it was a true wedding event, the bride and groom probably paid a pretty penny for 21C. I wonder if they got to ride away in that red, bejeweled 21C limousine I saw out front. Even the limo is art!
It�s like I always say. When you bring art into the picture, it�s a kick ass scene ... or perhaps I should be a bit more urbane and just say � it�s a no brainer.
MICHAEL CORBIN IS AN AVID ART COLLECTOR AND AUTHOR OF THE MULTI AWARD-WINNING BOOK, �THE ART OF EVERYDAY JOE: A COLLECTOR�S JOURNAL.� CHECK OUT HIS WEBSITE AT WWW.ARTBOOKGUY.COM
