newatlas.com: In most hotels, if the room temperature drops below freezing, there's going to be some strong words with the manager, however Sweden's Icehotel isn't like most hotels. Each December it opens with sub-zero suites that are decorated with weird and wonderful frozen sculptures for guests to enjoy.
4 comments:
Back in the fall, Susan would talk a lot about ephemeral art and how time is an important element of design that is often neglected. I didn’t fully understand what she meant at first, but I think the Ice Hotel in Sweden is a great example of this! The hotel itself, which is made of over 10 Olympic-sized pools worth of ice, is impressive enough in itself—every room is full of ice sculptures, crystal chandeliers, and natural lighting—but what really sets it apart is the fact that it isn’t meant to be sustained. Eventually, when the temperatures rise, the hotel will melt away without a trace. Choosing a medium like ice that we associate so closely with temporality forces patrons of the hotel to appreciate their surroundings and acknowledge how fleeting the entire experience is. It reminds me a lot of the work of Berndnaut Smilde, who made art out of clouds that would only last for a few seconds before dissipating completely.
I can’t believe that Icehotel is in its 35th year and I’ve never heard of it!!! What a truly incredible place; it is definitely going on my bucket list. The use of the medium of ice immediately transports viewers into a seemingly alternate dimension. Most people will probably never experience being completely surrounded by ice in their entire lifetime—even if they are, most likely it’s because they’ve been snowed in within another structure like a car or house. Thus, the fact that Icehotel completely surrounds viewers in ice makes it a truly unique and ethereal experience. I also think the use of lighting in these sculptures is super interesting. Seemingly every piece in Icehotel capitalizes on the fact that ice is translucent, but does so in different and wonderful ways. For some, like Dancing Auroras and Blossom, the diffuse (one might say frosted) backlighting provided ostensibly by fixtures positioned behind the walls of ice simply helps the ice-sculptures-in-the-round stand out. But in others, particularly Flock, the light actually highlights carvings in the walls themselves, which creates a truly magnificent and inspiring effect.
I think this is an incredible installation because of it use of such an unconventional material. Ice sounds ridiculously hard to work with, not to mention having to work with it at freezing temperature or your work will literally melt. I am super impressed by artists who are able to create huge rooms and lifelike sculptures out of ice for this hotel. “Give us a kiss” by Carl and Malena Wellander imagines if nature puts on an act for us each time we step out the door. This piece has a great impact and is emphasized even more because it is carved out of ice. I think there is a lot of creativity and invention that has to happen when you use materials that aren’t commonly used or have unique properties such as ice. While i’m intimidated by the fragility of it, I think ice would be super interesting to work with in a design because of its nature and the connotations that humans have with ice and cold. If I ever go to Sweden, I would really like to visit this hotel and see all the wonderful art on display.
So cool! (Get it). Not sure if I’d spend the night in an ice hotel, but mayhaps if there was hot coffee in the morning. Talk about the ephemeralness of art. These beautiful sculptures will quite literally melt away in a matter of months. Why are we as artists, particularly theater artists, so hooked on things that don’t last? It is fundamentally a weird sensation. You spend months, sometimes years, building this thing that ultimately ends up in the dumpster. Well there’s photos and videos, one might say. But is that really the real deal? Is it still theater if it’s not live? Don’t get me wrong I love an archival recording as much as the next person, but does it spoil the experience of seeing the show for the first time live in the dark embrace of a theater? All good things must come to an end. Such is theater and such is life.
Post a Comment