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Round Caged Bed, Hotel Pamplona, Osaka
Artist
Misty Keasler
(American, born 1978)
Date2005
MediumGiclée
DimensionsImage: 41 1/2 x 41 1/2 in. (105.41 x 105.41 cm)
Sheet: 42 x 42 in. (106.68 x 106.68 cm)
Framed: 43 1/2 x 43 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. (110.49 x 110.49 x 5.72 cm)
Sheet: 42 x 42 in. (106.68 x 106.68 cm)
Framed: 43 1/2 x 43 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. (110.49 x 110.49 x 5.72 cm)
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase, The Friends of Art Endowment Fund
Object number2014.27
Status
Not on viewCopyright© Misty Keasler
Category
Label TextThe Dallas-based photographer Misty Keasler turns her lens to public and private spaces unfamiliar to her, including garbage dumps, Russian orphanages, and Japanese love hotels. Regardless of where or what she photographs, she aims to create intimate portraits of the spaces people occupy.
One of Keasler's series is called Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan. The artist learned of the hotels while teaching English in Japan in 2003. Ubiquitous throughout the country, the 30,000 love hotels contain candy-colored rooms, some equipped with features such as S&M restraints and sex swings, that couples may rent by the hour to fulfill their sexual fantasies and fetishes. However, Keasler’s Love Hotels portfolio avoids the category of pornography, as her images are entirely devoid of people. Some images in the series depict examples of the garishly decorated rooms, for instance a pirate ship theme, carnival motif, or caged bed. Others show the common areas rather than private rooms; a promenade of fake trees or kitsch igloos here underscore the temporary exit from the real world and entrance to a fantasy realm promised by the hotel premises.
On one level, the Love Hotels series is a documentary project, revealing a little-known phenomenon of Japanese culture to a wider audience. But Keasler’s photographs of empty rooms generally hidden behind closed doors also place the viewer in the position of a voyeur, activating our imaginations and inviting us to vicariously consider our own desires.
One of Keasler's series is called Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan. The artist learned of the hotels while teaching English in Japan in 2003. Ubiquitous throughout the country, the 30,000 love hotels contain candy-colored rooms, some equipped with features such as S&M restraints and sex swings, that couples may rent by the hour to fulfill their sexual fantasies and fetishes. However, Keasler’s Love Hotels portfolio avoids the category of pornography, as her images are entirely devoid of people. Some images in the series depict examples of the garishly decorated rooms, for instance a pirate ship theme, carnival motif, or caged bed. Others show the common areas rather than private rooms; a promenade of fake trees or kitsch igloos here underscore the temporary exit from the real world and entrance to a fantasy realm promised by the hotel premises.
On one level, the Love Hotels series is a documentary project, revealing a little-known phenomenon of Japanese culture to a wider audience. But Keasler’s photographs of empty rooms generally hidden behind closed doors also place the viewer in the position of a voyeur, activating our imaginations and inviting us to vicariously consider our own desires.