Whitewashed LA: CONCEPTUAL PUBLIC ART

If you live in Los Angeles and you’ve taken a recent drive down Sunset Blvd. in Silverlake, you may be thinking “Was Tom Sawyer here?” Well he wasn’t, but french artist Vincent Lamouroux was and he’s whitewashed the abandoned Bates Motel as a conceptual public art project.  He didn’t just cover the building, he coated everything within its proximity including the palm trees, the signage, the fence, the billboard and the grass along the sidewalk. The stark white color and uniformity is so out of character to its surroundings that it feels like a fake structure, like a miniature architectural model.  The whitewash is made of an eco-safe lime paint that will wash away in a few weeks so if you haven’t seen it yet it’s worth the drive!