LOVE HOTEL MINI is the Pop Art Edition of the HIDDEN IN TOKYO picture LOVE HOTEL, showing only part of the TOKYO collection picture. LOVE HOTELS are hotels that offer double rooms for short periods of time. Typically, you can rent a room for a minimum of one to three hours during the day, called a "rest", or for the whole night, called a "stay", which usually starts after 10 pm. As the name suggests, the main purpose of love hotels is to provide couples with a room to spend some undisturbed time together. The picture shows three different couples and a girl waiting for their turn to climb up the ladder to love city to visit the LOVE HOTEL. All of them are waiting with a certain gap between them due to social distancing. The first person in line is the innocent Dorothy of Banksy’s “Stop and Search” picture. I have transformed her into a wealthy uptown girl wearing luxury clothes and jewelry that wipe away the innocence of the original Dorothy (1939), who is portrayed as harmless and naïve. Here she represents a young girl entering the hotel by herself because her “date” is already waiting for her. Japan has a flamboyant mistress culture. A surprising number of people in Japan believe that cheating is bad only if there is an emotional component to it—cheating with a prostitute or paid mistress is often seen as nothing more than “blowing off steam” and quite separate from one’s marriage, therefore overlooked or even accepted. The mistress gets paid a monthly rate or for each intercourse. Besides that they get luxury presents, and often even their rent gets paid. Meetings often take place in LOVE HOTELS. Next in line are Superman and Batman sharing a passionate kiss half hidden by their capes. Japan is the only country within the G7 that still does not legally recognize same-sex couples at all. In March 2021, the Sapporo district court ruled that the government's non-recognition of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. In addition, a 2020 survey of over 10,000 people identifying as belonging to a sexual minority in Japan found that 38% of them had been harassed or assaulted. By taking the two most alpha male superheroes and placing them in this embrace, street artist Rich Simmons wanted to create a dialogue about equality. “If you were in need of being saved from something, would it matter if the person who could be your hero was gay or not?” Behind our superheroes I chose a couple stenciled by Banksy. Both the man and the woman are wearing a diving mask that could also be understood as a mask to cover their identities. In my artwork they symbolize a couple during the time of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. Showing the couple with helmets covering their identities and standing in a barrel, I want to point out the shame, helplessness and despair of many Covid-19 patients and health workers worldwide because of being assaulted, shamed, stigmatized and mobbed by their friends, neighbors and the society surrounding them. Japan in particular has witnessed a growing number of harassment cases. A Washington Post article (September 2020) states that “for Covid-19 sufferers, beating the physical symptoms is only part of the battle. They also faced stigma, harassment and anger from others in the community, as do their relatives … Medical staffers came home to fight an even more unsettling disease — fear and discrimination. Their children were turned away from nursery schools and after-school clubs, their spouses were told not to come to work.” It appears that discrimination and stigmatization of Covid-19 sufferers, even after their recovery, or of people who are surrounded by Covid-19 patients in their work environment has a greater impact on Japanese society than the virus itself. The last people in the queue are the presumably most popular bi-national (European / Japanese) couple of all times – John Lennon and Yoko Ono holding a sign “Please take us to Tokyo”. Looking down on the peaceful scenery with Mount Fuji and the Tokyo Tower in the background is a Hokusai oni standing on a hill, with Dorothy’s dog Tutu at his side. He symbolizes the dark side. Since the LOVE HOTELS are very anonymous, they often become the stage for crimes such as rape and even murder.
