A text piece installed in the lobby of the Seattle’s historic Bush Hotel, consisting of adhesive vinyl applied to the inside surface of street-facing glass in the style of typical storefront window signage. However, the text advertises the features and benefits of what’s outside the building, in the streets: the people, the architecture, the surface textures, the sounds, and myriad other unique qualities that make city life interesting. It is installed to be ‘read’ from the inside, which appears backwards from outside, and it is precisely this apparent mistake of the installation that gets people to notice it. The text is referring to their side of the glass, to the space they inhabit, and even, specifically – to they themselves, and the very act of reading window signage. (The piece’s title is the words “CITY STREETS” spelled backwards.) It is the viewer who is being put on display, with the backdrop of the city’s exterior, from the implied perspective of a vacant interior.
STEERTS YTIC
location: Bush Hotel building, Seattle, WA
materials: white adhesive vinyl
assisted by: Tory Franklin, Isabel Blue
commissioned by: Seattle Storefronts