Located alongside a motorway outside of Melbourne, in Australia’s Victoria state, lies Hotel EastLink. At least what looks like a high-rise hotel, because in reality, it’s just an unusual sculpture.
Designed by local artist Callum Morton, the Hotel EastLink was unveiled in 2007, and it has been confusing motorists ever since. It’s not as large as a high-rise hotel – 20 meters tall, 12m wide, and 5m thick – but driving past it at high speed for the first time, it’s really hard to tell, so it’s no wonder that people actually look it up online and actually call in for reservations. To make it even more confusing, at night, some of the windows are lit up, which makes it seem like some of the rooms are occupied. But there are no rooms, and the building itself can’t be entered, because the whole thing is a sculpture designed purely for ornamental purposes.
Photo: Rory Hyde/Flickr
“Motorists will view it from the car as an actual hotel and perhaps over time as a strangely de-scaled prop that has escaped a theme park or film set,” artist Callum Morton described the concept of this project in the early 2000s. Now, almost two decades later, his creation still plays with people’s minds as they pass it on the EastLink toll road in Melbourne’s Dandenong neighborhood.
At first, the large rectangular building with a big, red ‘HOTEL’ sign at the top seems pretty normal, but then you start to realize that it’s not as imposing as it’s supposed to be, and that it is located in the middle of a barren field, and that’s when things start getting confusing. But that’s all by design…
“I think it’s kind of interesting how putting something in a space that is slightly beguiling or is a little bit strange, how that maybe changes the way people think about art or practice,” Callum Morton said about his unique artwork.
Interestingly, Hotel EastLink even has its own website, if you want to learn more about it.
