Heidi Locher: Hotel Kalifornia

Hotel Kalifornia by Heidi Locher brings together elements of Locher’s interdisciplinary practice. She creates her own Air Architecture through the collision of the different facets of her fine art and architectural practices. The exhibition explores ideas and feelings of disengagement that occur away from one’s home. Hotel Kalifornia, taking its title from the famous Eagles’ song, looks at the geography of loneliness and the heightened intensity of our inner feelings at different moments in life.

Besides installations, a photo-roman and super enlarged photographs the exhibition revolves around a short film, made in collaboration with Frederick Paxton, which explores the notion of hidden memories and deep personal anguish. It is a profound investigation into moments of change that leave mental scars hidden deep within the subconscious. 

Ms Locher took a truly descriptive and rather personal perspective when producing this short film and she wanted to address different phases of women’s lives without forgetting her own experience.

Having been brought up in a hotel, the theme carries significant feelings for Locher, who says: “Hotels are like a musical instrument to me, they have a certain kind of rhythm. I can read them and the people in them and hear their inner workings. I feel I can pick up the vibrations, the intensity and the mood. Hotels have a heightened frequency where tensions lurk and rituals are acted out in an extreme atmosphere which is not really like everyday life.”

Filmed in a modern hotel room (created by Locher), it has three sections, each focusing on one of the three stages of a woman’s life: the terrible moment of change seen through the eyes of the child, a teenager who suffers the consequences of the trauma, and an adult who experiences the ultimate cathartic release that, in turn, brings redemption.

The footage has been edited in slow motion, with lighting contrasts and penetrating details in order to recreate a ghost-like and claustrophobic atmosphere.

From this exhibition alone it is true to say that Locher has succeeded in carving a respected reputation within the art world.

Annalisa Ratti

Heidi Locher: Hotel Kalifornia is at Londonewcastle now. For further information visit the gallery’s website here.