Starting in June, Harmon Guest House will host a new mixed media project from artist Alice Warnecke Sutro entitled Mistress of Memory/ Palimpsest Suites. The site-specific installation will feature playful life-size figurative drawings mounted on glass in the intimacy of the Harmon Guest House Suites, a companion video piece in the lobby, and a large wall mural at The Rooftop. Leaning on the way hotels punctuate our lives as places we go to mark milestones and celebrations, the project gently reveals the palimpsest nature of a space built for transience. It suggests current visitors acknowledge those that came before them and those that will follow, thus creating intimacy through layers of private memory in a shared space. Guests (as well as the general public/digital visitors to this website) will be invited to write their (named or anonymous) version of what these women are doing or the memories suggested in the project by submitting a flash fiction entry to be published on the project website. The project was conceived, and much of the material completed, during a one-night stay by the artist in Suite 17.
Palimpsest: a manuscript, typically of papyrus or parchment, that has been written on more than once, with the earlier writing incompletely scraped off or erased yet often still legible.
Project Information:
Mistress of Memory / Palimpsest Suites
One night stay March 25th, 2024
4-part Harmon Guest House take-over project by Alice
Multi-media: balloons, sharpie, video, paint, decals
Painted & shot in-suite
Audience Participation Component: flash fiction open submission online compilation
Part 1: Triptych Video & Stairwell Balloon Woman [public/street facing]
Part 2: Shower Stall Balloon Women [private/in six suites]
Part 3: Mistress of Memory above Hotel [public/in restaurant]
Part 4: Balloon Memory Well for Hotel Guests [public/in lobby]
IN SUITE RECEPTION
June 27th, 5-7 :: Artist Talk and Q&A
Bring your writing mojo - two suites will be open to the public and refreshments served. Get intimate with the artwork and sit a moment to write your fiction entry, it’s an in-suite write-athon.
