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.