GENERIC GENTRIFICATION

April, 2015

In a temporary art installation titled: "Projection," French artist Vincent Lamouroux has taken the creepy, long-abandoned Sunset Pacific Motel in Silverlake, Ca. (nicknamed "Bates Motel" by locals due to its Sunset Blvd/Bates Street location as well its crime-filled history) and painted it totally white.

Not painted, exactly, but covered every inch of the property - including nearby palm trees and billboard - with white, lime powder paint (environmentally friendly lime-wash which wear off over time and doesn't harm the trees).

The notorious Sunset Pacific Motel at 4301 West Sunset Blvd

"Bates Motel" given a temporary facelift

The Sunset Pacific Motel has been a neighborhood eyesore and public nuisance crime-magnet since it was shuttered in 2002. Currently slated for demolition, its new, temporary status as living art installation has been heralded in official press as a site which, "...induces both an appearance and disappearance. It revisits our existing landscape with new eyes and envisions the building's new surfaces as screens for the projection of our desires."  

Pre-Art

Post-Art

However, savvy longtime Silverlake residents, aware of the area's recent gentrification and the gradual influx of middle-class hipsters into the area, wonder if perhaps the artist is actually making a vivid statement about a neighborhood literally being whitewashed.