Windsor Hotel art contrasts internal realm with public spectacle

The juxtaposition of public display and private concealment contained within Melbourne’s iconic old Windsor Hotel on Spring Street is at the heart of a painting that has won artist and VCA PhD candidate Celeste Chandler the newly established Windsor Art Award.

The Award and $10,000 scholarship were presented to Ms Chandler recently, and Adipoetra Halim, Hotel Director of the Halim Group, which owns The Windsor says they were thrilled to provide an “artistic canvas” for emerging artists, and the award to recognise Australia’s best emerging talent. 

“The project, called Luminescence has been a stimulating platform to visually and orally communicate to the community and visitors to Melbourne the integral components of service, guests, employees and history that have formed the hotel’s rich tapestry and soul,” Mr Halim says.

Ms Chandler says her winning artwork, “Lovesick”, which is now located in the hotel’s classic dining room at 111 Spring Street is a reflection of the masks we wear when in a public space.

“What strikes me about grand hotels is that they appear to be all about the public spectacle – correct appearance, social status, dress, and behaviour – and yet the entire point of a hotel is to contain privacy,” she says. 

“By installing these works in the public dining room I wanted to draw attention to the intimate and internal realm within the public spectacle of the hotel and the duality of revealing and concealing. I think of these paintings as luminous psychological spaces, places to explore the relationship between painting and empathy.”

The project exhibition featured 38 conceptual and material interpretations in many of the hotel’s quirkiest spaces including lifts, guest corridors, lights, windows and the hotel’s historic staircase.

The award was judged by renowned art photographer Bill Henson, Assistant Director of the National Gallery of Victoria (Curatorial and Collection Management) Dr Isobel Crombie, and Jan Murray who is Head of the School of Art at the VCA.

“This partnership with The Windsor presents a unique opportunity for our honours and graduate students at the VCA School of Art to explore the history of the hotel and experiment creatively in a completely new environment,” Ms Murray says.

www.vca.unimelb.edu.au/art