Looking at the hotel and a stunning rainbow over the Maidan, Kiev

My hotel overlooks the Maidan in Kiev and I had two hours before sunset to find some food and spend time walking around this famous square. It was a national holiday, so the square was filled with people and music. And numerous reminders of the lives lost at the recent Euromaidan uprising which happened here just a few months ago…

So, once again, it was in the middle of the night, that I could start with my intervention to turn the hotel room’s decorative print into an original and unusual art work.

2015 Hotel Deco Busting

Intervention Against Tasteless Wall Decorations in Hotels and Holiday Apartments. (Part 14)
Intervention gegen geschmacklose Wanddekoration in Hotelzimmern und Ferienwohnungen.

Wow, this was already the 14th intervention! So, let me tell you about this one.

The hotel is prominently located and surely has seen really glamorous times, but that must have been some years ago. It still has the old-world charm and the rooms are fine. The decoration which I found in this room, was a print on cardboard of a painting depicting a boat close to a waterfall.

When I know that I will be staying in the hotel, I try to take a small selection of art supplies on the trip, but since I never know what to expect, I usually have to be inventive and work very spontaneously. And again, I only had limited time to do this, as I only stayed here one night, arriving late and leaving before breakfast. So I decided to try to keep this one simple.

Inspired by the rainbow, which I have seen earlier in the evening, and the golden frame of the deco print, I decided to once again make use of a golden felt pen, just like I did in Charkiv already. It is graphic and dries fast.

Gold seemed perfect. This beautiful old city and hotel, reminded me of glamorous, golden past eras. Yet in this time where there is a war raging in the east of the country and many young people have lost their lives, the future looks uncertain for this country and its people.

I added a square of 9 x 9 golden circles to the centre of the print. The metallic golden circles are almost invisible, when looked at from the front, but they glow beautifully when seen from an angle. I hope that this can remind us, that sometimes our reality looks bleak, but looked at from a different perspective we can find hope and beauty in every situation.

We just need to be open to find the opportunities and gifts of every situation. Just like believing in finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

And this is my wish for the Ukrainian people and in fact, for all of humanity.

The number 9 is an auspicious number. In numerology Number 9 is the number of Universal love, eternity, faith, Universal Spiritual Laws, the concept of karma, spiritual enlightenment and divine wisdom. And it is linked to the colour: gold.

Some have asked before, how I ensure to have the right materials handy. I try to take some useful things along, but am always limited by stuff like baggage allowance and the fact, that I seldom know what to expect. I try to work with what I find and what I have. And to make a plan. Here I had the vision of adding the circles, I had the right pen, but I wanted to make sure they are at an equal distance from each other and the same size.

So in the middle of the night I went down to reception and asked for a punch.

Not an easy task, since they only spoke a pretty basic English and I don’t speak a word of Ukrainian or Russian. And I do not think that many guests are requesting a punch at 11:45 at night. I took a card along, punched a row of holes into it, thanked them, and went back to my room. Now I could get started…

Getting started, with my newly created stencil.

Well here is the final result of this late night hotel deco-busting intervention:

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And some more pictures, just click on the images to get a larger and complete view:

Before – this is the printed artwork, before I gave it a face lift.

After – this is the print with my intervention. The golden circles are not very visible when viewed directly from the front.

A close-up view of my intervention

A little note left on the back of the artwork.

Relaxing after the work is finished.

The room and artwork with newly added glamour in the morning.

If you ever visit Kiev, make sure to stay in this room to get an extra special art treatment as a bonus.

Did you like this? You can find more similar interventions HERE.

I wish you a wonderful, hopeful and golden week ahead!

2015 Hotel Deco Busting

I have just returned from a business trip to the Ukraine. As my regular readers know, whenever I happen to stay at a hotel I have a special mission. I upgrade the usual bleak and cheap hotel deco, by turning it into an original piece of art. I use my time and resources to infuse the found hotel deco (I cannot really call it art) with some humour, style and creativity. So the hotel ends up with something better and more valuable.

In Kiew I found a cheap and slightly fading landscape print in my hotel room. It has been printed on canvas and framed in a solid wooden frame. I arrived late at night and had to leave early, so this piece of work was done in the early morning hours.

I like to not plan too much and rather react spontaneously to what I find. Besides this faded print, I found a complimentary sewing set from the hotel. I decided to use that and originally thought of just doing some kind of geometric shape. After a few stitches, an abstract geometric shape did not feel right and suddenly it became a house, with a shed and a dog.

The complimentary sewing set, does not offer a lot of thread, so I had to be very economical and selective with my lines and stitches. Anyway, without further ado, here are the pictures! I hope you enjoy them.

Please sign up on the right side to receive updates, if you want to be informed about another two hotel deco busting works which I have done during this trip.

Please click on the images to see a larger view and read the information about them.