1. Every wall a canvas
Australian street artist Matt Adnate shook up thousands of spray cans to create a 25-storey triple portrait on the hotel’s exterior, the largest work he’s ever done. Floodlit at night, it features three faces, a tribute to the region’s multiculturalism. The crowning image depicts Nathan McGuire, a model and business-owner of Whadjuk Noongar heritage. He appears again in the hotel lobby via a 3x3m canvas, which leads to a stairwell with a giant mural of the artist’s right hand. Adnate’s wife is also painted on the laneway walls beside the hotel, where drivers pass by en route to the carpark.
2. Connection from the (he)art
Adnate has a strong passion for Indigenous and multicultural subjects, and says he spends considerable time building connections with people and their communities before he photographs and paints them. For him, working with Art Series was similarly authentic: The hotel gave him plenty of scope to express himself. Guests can learn more about the artist and his works in their rooms, where a hardcover tome dedicated to Adnate is provided alongside other art-focused coffee table books.
3. Creative substance
Bedrooms are deliberately plain and predominantly soft grey – a little like a concrete streetscape. The simple shell invites the eye to travel to two large giclée prints of Adnate’s work; in all, the hotel exhibits 650 of these prints. Adnate started out subversively tagging and graffitiing city surfaces, so it’s fitting that his tag name is scribbled across every glass shower door in the hotel. Each room’s giant windows look east and west, offering a different view to Perth’s Swan River.
4. Party time
The hotel’s centre is undoubtedly its luminous, white and pastel colour-popped pool, bar and restaurant. It’s an indoor-outdoor collaboration with the Hyde brand, whose playful venues in Miami and Los Angeles have become magnets for celebrities and personalities – five types of bottomless fries and Saturday pool parties will definitely draw you in. The hip space tangos with the hotel’s artistic ethos: Creative prints in all sizes cover the interior walls, while the private dining room has a mural resembling a beautiful Parisian scene as its backdrop.
5. Location, location, location
While the hotel sates many needs, the venues within skipping distance will lure you out. Next door is the new Little Stables bar, a narrow space lined with bar stools. Visit the circular coffee window early, stop in for ramen at lunch or descend into the dark basement bar at night. Another punchy bar-restaurant, Tiny’s, is less than a two-minute walk away and is popular with the after-work crowd. Alternatively, catch a show at His Majesty’s Theatre. You can also grab a hotel bike to visit nearby entertainment zones such as Perth Arena, Yagan Square, Northbridge and the Elizabeth Quay waterfront.
Singapore Airlines flies to Perth four times weekly. To book a flight, visit singaporeair.com
SEE ALSO: Western Australia’s murals and artworks transform its vast landscape
This article was originally published in the January 2020 issue of SilverKris magazine
