Part of Strange Stranger
Claire and Sean’s Luxury Problems is a site-specific video installation that documents the abandoned hotels of Hachijojima, Japan. Once promoted as the "Hawaii of Japan" during the economic boom of the 1960s-70s, these hotels have lain dormant for nearly three decades as Japanese tourists shifted to traveling to international destinations.
Filmed in the style of post-war director Yasujiro Ozu's characteristic geometrically framed "pillow shots", the installation pairs these haunting visuals with narration read from vintage tourist brochures. Creating a contrast between past optimism and present decay.
The work will be installed within a Blue Mountains hotel room, drawing parallels between these two tourist destinations. Exploring the complex, sometimes ambivalent relationship between tourism and local communities. The artists who have lived in the Blue Mountains for over three decades aim to examine what happens when tourism vanishes from a place.
Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro use their practice to locate themselves within contemporary society's systems, probing the tension between individual autonomy and the social contract, and what's gained and lost through global interdependence. They combine biological, historical, cultural and astronomical elements to unpack who we are and how we got here.
Their work has shown widely internationally (Belgium, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey, Taiwan, UK, USA), with solo shows at Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), AGNSW, La bf15 (Lyon), the Corcoran Gallery (Washington DC), and a survey at MCA, Sydney. They represented Australia at the 53rd Venice Biennale with Life Span, and have participated in the Auckland Triennale, Adelaide Biennial, Setouchi Triennale and Oku-Noto Triennale. Their public commissions include Cloud Nation, installed at Green Square; Place of the Eels, located in Parramatta Square and Magic Circle, occupying Martin Place Metro Station.