The Overlook, 2007
In The Overlook, I recreated a carpet from Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining in the Lobby Gallery in the Dominion Hotel. By introducing a visual motif from the film into a hotel on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, I explored the multiple and shifting influences that create a sense of place. The orange, red, and brown geometrically patterned carpet served as a potent visual signifier of the horror and aesthetic of the film, in which Jack Nicholson’s character descends into madness while attempting to write a novel. Seeking to emulate anxieties about production and isolation central to the film, I produced the 500-square-foot carpet through the labor-intensive process of latch-hooking. I worked 16 hours a day over a 19-week period to complete the project and over 40 people participated in the making of the piece, transforming what would have otherwise been a controlled and solitary effort into a process of openness and exchange.