Glam Standard Hotel Releases Provocative New Promotional Ad

Image: The Standard

Traditionally known for their tufted leather headboards, luxurious bed sheets and plush rugs, the Standard Hotel has been in the news recently for their newly released promotional ad that features a woman urinating on a rug.

According to The Standard, the image is part of a post-9/11 series by renowned artist Erwin Wurm exploring the “invasion of personal and private space”. Lehmann Maupin Gallery released a statement saying, “In the series, Instructions on How to Be Politically Incorrect, Wurm tackles our heightened fearfulness following the events of 9/11. Threats on national and international security have made us more sensitive to our personal space and freedoms. An invasion of personal and private space is documented in this work. Wurm seems to be making fun of how much we have accepted intrusion into our private lives. Despite the lightheartedness of this series, these works of art have a serious intent and are a social and political critique of our changing world.”

The Standard has a “hip, expect-the-unexpected” reputation for being an edgy contemporary space and the hotel’s creative director, Claire Darrow Mosier, is said to have wanted to contribute to the magazines with artful ad space, not just a product plug.

Designed to push the envelope, some of the Standard’s other ads from Wurm’s series include a woman spitting into someone else’s soup and a man with his head buried in a woman’s blouse.

A quote by Erwin Wurm is posted on The Standard’s website and reads,

One of the most political
questions is to be critical
about the things which
are accepted.
-Erwin Wurm

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