JAY CRITCHLEY

Provincetown, MA. Provincetown artist Jay Critchley proposes to float the sand-encrusted “Beige Motel’ from Rte 6 in North Truro across Massachusetts Bay and temporarily install it on the newly-created Rose Kennedy Greenway - above the controversial $22 billion Big Dig. This distinctive, iconic “roadside attraction” - formerly the Pilgrim Spring Motel, named after the nearby fresh water spring used by the Pilgrims in 1620 - is a spare, one story motor court built in 1955, an imaginative relic to the American Dream. The entire complex of 44 bedrooms - previously attached to the main structure - has been demolished. The present “A-frame with wings” office building is scheduled for demolition soon.

The Beige Motel/Boston proposal has been sent to the Greenway Conservancy for consideration.

The re-incarnation of this structure in the Wharf District would: link Boston to it’s historic waterfront; highlight the architectural relationship between the cityscape and non-urban areas, all connected by the automobile, which created a network of no-frills wayside motels (and the automobiles that now journey unseen below the Greenway itself); link the past with the future - the changing nature of Cape Cod that Rose Kennedy experienced with the unknown future of cars, oil and transportation. This abandoned motel will temporarily re-occupy the space of the abandoned elevated highway of the same era, and meet the new, future cityscape of Boston.

Unsuspecting motorists traveling on Cape Cod’s Rte 6 towards Provincetown are presently greeted by the Beige Motel (“The World’s Largest Sand-encrusted Motel”), created by the artist in 2007, amidst the sandy beaches and sand dunes of North Truro - its sand-covered surfaces reflecting the unique light of the Cape tip. The peculiar vernacular architecture, both kitschy and surreal, has been transformed into a monumental “embalmed” sculpture that reflects on our journey through time, loss and decay, the environment and our perception of the universe.

The post-World War II economy brought the dominance and affordability of the automobile to middle class Americans, who traveled in greater numbers to Cape Cod for vacations, and where Rose Kennedy and family became one of the main attractions and cheap motels dotted the highways and back roads. The transformed Pilgrim Spring Motel is one of the last ones standing from that era, whose transformed, sand-encrusted architectural form dramatically emerges from the landscape. Its demolition will make way for the expansion of Truro Tradesman’s Park.

The recent discovery by scientists and astronomers that the universe is a lackluster beige color - the dominant color of dune sand - is ironic and surprising, symbolizing our inability to grasp the unyielding mysteries of nature. In 2002 astronomers Karl Glazebrook and Ivan Baldry of Johns Hopkins University set off a cosmic firestorm when their research determined the color of the Universe. By taking a census of all the light from 200,000 galaxies, the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey created the Cosmic Spectrum. To everyone’s astonishment it was determined that the color was “cosmic latte” or beige.

This research rekindled the artist’s interest in sand as an artistic medium, which began with his Sand Car series in MacMillan Wharf Parking Lot in Provincetown from 1981-1984. Presently his mummified 1965 Chevy Impala is installed in the North Burial Ground mausoleum as part of his cemetery-wide project, Cryptic Providence. Also, the Big Dig has played prominently in his work, culminating in the CD, Big Twig Tunnel Tapes - Boston’s Big Dig Sings, recorded 125 below the city before I-93 opened to the public in 2003.

Beige Motel/Boston on the Greenway becomes a monument to the past, illuminating the future with its elemental materials and reflective light significant to the Cape and other coastal places like Boston.