WHERE WERE YOU When the art came down

Posted on 05/10/2016 | About New York City, New York

Last week a private art collector relinquished a portion of its assets at the Openhouse Gallery in New York City. The general public was invited to the event called, ‘When the Art Comes Down.’ You may be familiar with some of the work in the collection. Perhaps you have seen some of the pieces in your travels? Maybe from an overnight stay in a highway motel in Canada? Or possibly in the US, China or Brazil?

The collector is Super 8 hotels. 

The chain is doing a major renovation and getting rid of thousands of pictures (ok, let’s use their word ‘art’) that has blighted the walls of their properties from Amherst, Nova Scotia to Show Low, Arizona. One hundred of them will be at the Openhouse Gallery. 

When Super 8’s newly renovated guest rooms are completed, oversized bed headboards will be decorated with black-and-white photography of ‘iconic landmarks and landscapes distinct to each hotel’s locality’. But first they have to get rid of their dated inventory. 

Super 8 could not in good conscience expect to actually sell their collection. They had the good humour to treat their garage sale compilation like a curated exhibition. 

Mike Mueller, senior vice president of Super 8’s brand operations described the type of art as "your very typical deer in a snowy field by a babbling brook." 

Actress/comedian Amy Sedaris hosted the event. She was responsible for naming the pieces in advance. I believe in one interview she described the art as ugly, but I am sure she was just being kind. 

"Amy appreciates imperfection with humour. We thought as co-host, she could bring some really interesting light to what could be perceived as very uninteresting art," said Mueller. 

I think the event would have been fascinating to attend, having never been to an art auction or an art gallery in NYC. 

But I have been to comedy clubs, and I know the etiquette. You don’t eat a sandwich while the person is talking, you don’t text while they are in a routine, and you don’t sit close to the stage unless you want to be picked on. 

If you do sit in a front row, you laugh; but not hard enough or loud enough to draw attention to yourself. You don’t roll your eyes, you don’t smirk and you don’t make eye contact. Failure to meet this criteria can result in a humiliating insult; something I would never want to experience. 

Though worse things could happen. A comedian could say. “Now we have a picture of a typical gopher in a sunny field by a babbling book. Doled. To the woman in the twelfth row with a hat and sunglasses.” 

Yeah, that would be worse.