Tag Archives: Poel

Hotel Deco Busting: Gänseblümchen

2013 Hotel Deco Busting: Gänseblümchen A

Intervention Against Tasteless Wall Decorations in Hotels and Holiday Apartments.(Part 7)
Intervention gegen geschmacklose Wanddekoration in Hotelzimmern und Ferienwohnungen.(Teil 7)

Since 2010 I have secretly been slightly altering tasteless or boring hotel or holiday apartment art whenever I had the chance to.

: Gänseblümchen A (finished intervention)

Our bungalow on the island Poel in the Baltic ocean was small, but had a few typical holiday bungalow decoration gems on offer. The colourful ceramic plate was by far the most classy and valuable piece of ‘art’, but it was chipped on the side – probably the reason why it ended up as decoration in the bungalow.

: Gänseblümchen A (Original plate without intervention)

I decided that the alteration should be simple, easy to remove and just change the viewing experience slightly. I had some red tape and after some deliberation I decided a text element would be a great addition to the abstract and organic design of the plate. On the lawn in front of the building thousands of daisies started growing and I really like their German name: Gänseblümchen. The letters for the word were cut out from the 1cm broad tape and stuck to the plate.

: Gänseblümchen A (Detail)

Gänseblümchen A
Coloured sticky tape on found porcelain plate in a holiday bungalow on the island Poel.
approximately 45cm in diameter
July 2013

Work in progress

Disclaimer: It has become a habit of mine, to subtly alter and improve the decoration in hotels and holiday appartments when I have the opportunity. I do this with respect to the owners and future guests. I do not intend any harm and hope that it will put a smile on people’s faces who notice.

To see other similar projects, click HERE.

Coulrophobia – or how to face your fears

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Who is afraid of the clown? Apparently enough people to have an own term for this fear: Coulrophobia.

In our holiday bungalow on Poel we found a children’s porcelain savings ‚box’ in the form of a clown’s head, used as decoration. It was so ugly and trashy that we immediately named it

Gruselclown

(German for creepy clown)

Gruselclown (Before)

In a state of absolute coulrophobia, I decided that it definitely needed to get a real makeover:

Gruselclown - After our intervention

Gruselclown – After our intervention

The bookshelf had mostly thriller and horror novels on offer. With the name already set for the clown and seeing the books, it was a short way to decide to turn him into a skull. Now he had a real purpose to hold the books upright and add to the horror theme and the poor thing did not look so out-of-place anymore.

Gruselkabinett – Horror Bookshelve

In good company with books titled: In the Name of the Dead and Cemetery of the Living Dead or In a Coma.

Pimping a framed calendar photo

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Intervention Against Tasteless Wall Decorations in Hotels and Holiday Apartments.(Part 5)

Cutting out a landscape photo from a calendar and framing it in a cheap frame seems to be a general habit all over the world. Do people really think that is cool? Ok, it is cheap and at least usually calendar photos usually show an average pretty landscape. But still, as my art lecturer would say: “Why, Larry? Why?”

Our bungalow on the island Poel in the Baltic ocean was small, but had a few typical holiday bungalow decoration gems on offer. This faded landscape of the area was one of it and in urgent need of improvement.

Found calendar photo or the BEFORE pic

I decided to pimp the calendar image with some ‘real’ painting and a view which looks slightly more exciting and challenging. On the previous day I photographed an old man going for a swim in the shallow water and decided to add him to the idyllic island landscape.

AFTER: The Great Bather final pic ©ImkeRust

While painting, I had all kinds of ideas for the title, envisioning the man to be a mythical, cow eating giant responsible for the mysterious disappearance of the cows. Or a ghost who only appears at certain times in the water and stares at the cows before submerging in the sea again. Or just the friendly village eldest who has been going for a swim every day without fail for the past 28 years….

But I guess I leave the stories for the viewers who will hopefully notice something strange in this picture and start wondering.

The Great Bather back on the wall©ImkeRusts

Did you like this? You can view more similar actions on my webpage under Interventions. I will be posting future deco busting actions on my blog, so be sure to sign up to receive notifications of updates via email. 🙂

Imke Rust

Visual Artist