‘Commodity, Firmness & Delight’

This installation is inspired by the Japanese love hotel. Love hotels satisfy a need. They provide privacy and escapism for Japanese couples far away from tiny homes, extended families and prying eyes. They are easy to find, clustered near mainline railway stations and expressway interchanges. Their architecture is overblown, their names absurd, but they are an intrinsic and suprising part of Japanese society. Western eyes rarely see such frankness when it comes to sex, but love hotels are big business, clean, tidy and accessible. There is no need for the clientele to feel embarrassed or ashamed.

During the day, rooms are available for two hour ‘rests’ or, from 10pm for overnight ‘stays’. All processes, from the selection of a room to check-out is automated or discrete. There are no keys. The rooms themselves can be overtly themed with for example shell beds, hobby horses and garden swings or be more sedate with imported furnishings that reflect aspirations for all things Western, but what you'll always find is a bath built for two. This unique context has provided the framework for this exhibition which is organised around notions of reception, room and reward. The 'guests' can peruse a selection of rooms from a touch screen display before hurrying past the robotic jellyfish bobbing in the water feature. They will find a room with a revolving pink pvc futon bed, pillow cases hand embroidered with Manga drawings, all nestling under a mirrored ceiling studded with fibre optics.

An array of convenience items will be at hand to cater for all foibles, plus when the mood takes them there is a plasma screen showing Japanese TV and an innovative motion controlled ‘hand jive’ game for the PlayStation 2. On departure the ‘guests’ can peruse a selection of Japanese collectibles, designer homes and goods that can be theirs if they have enough points left on their love hotel customer loyalty scheme card.

Supported by

Additional information

1/ ‘Commodity, Firmness & Delight’ is a joint initiative between Northern Architecture and Globe Gallery, curated by Mark Daniels and Rashida Davison with funding from the Arts Council of England, Japan 2001 and Northern Arts.

2/ Exhibition includes work by: Shumon Basar, Calum Stirling, FOBA, Hideshi Ide, Konami, Adele Prince, Sony, Bridget Smith, Takara Toys, Atsushi Tameda, Steve Thompson, Kosuke Tsumura and Kyoichi Tsuzuki.

3/ www.lovehotel.org.uk

4/ Historically Japanese culture has evolved through the steady abandonment of old customs and the adoption of foreign culture. Public housing estates first appeared in the early 1960s. They ushered in the western style of living with separate rooms for sleeping and eating and triggered the rapid transformation of outlying farming communities into commuter ‘bed towns’. The reality however saw families choosing to sleep together in one room, a tradition which prevails to this day and so when privacy was required, the ultimate consumer driven society provided privacy paid for by the hour, in the form of the love hotel.

The industry is thriving, making a lot of money for the owners, however new entertainment business laws are reining in the more extreme interior decor as ‘facilities not required for the basic purpose of guest lodging’. Owners are now toning down the interiors in order to make the grade for the category of ‘ordinary guest lodging’. The very spirit of the love hotel was a constant reinvention of the rooms so as to never bore the clientele. The new hotels keep with the tradition of discretion and automation but now have interiors which are closer to bland business hotels.

The ‘bed towns’ are changing too. In Japan, most people buy new homes from companies called ‘housemakers’. Buyers simply select a model from a showroom, catalogue or website. These kit-of-parts homes account for almost all new houses built in Japan. As a challenge to the norm architects FOBA have developed a system of five concept houses entitled FOB Homes. Simple white modernist boxes almost entirely shut off from the outside world. They are not meant to be introverted or insensitive but designed to protect the privacy of the owners and their neighbours and in-between create buffer zones, welcome public realm in amongst the everlasting suburbs.

Housing models and family structures are evolving. The unheard of concept of the single person home has become a reality. The love hotel’s very reason for being could be under threat. The intention of the exhibition is to provide an insight into an aspect of Japanese culture which is little documented or paralleled in the West.