Spending the night here is dirt cheap!
For just $50, a Williamsburg art gallery will let you climb onto an art object and spend the night, as part of its “(Untitled), four beds” exhibition. But it is no bed of roses: each of the four sleeping spots is covered in either salt, rice, paper, or lightning-blasted dirt. The artist behind the literally soiled sheets wants guests to get something more important than 40 winks — she hopes sleepers will start to think about everyday objects in a whole new way.
“I think more than anything I want them to have a tactile experience with an everyday object that’s memorable,” said Ayden LeRoux, who was once the co-owner of a bed and breakfast. “I want them to have the experience of re-encountering an object they maybe don’t think about that much and having the sense that it’s really more powerful.”
Each bed is designed to create “a unique sensory experience,” according to the gallery’s Airbnb listing — one is sprinkled with salt from the Great Salt Lake in Utah, while another is filled with 200 pounds of rice, and a third is topped with soil that has been struck by lightning. For the fourth bed, LeRoux created custom sheets by sewing together pages of the ’90s dating manual “The Rules.”
The artist hopes that sleepers will have an interesting experience snoozing on her custom made beds.
“I hope it’s a little strange and different and beautiful and curious and lovely,” said LeRoux.
The artist has already spent the night in the bed topped with rice, an experience that was far more enjoyable than napping while covered in grain might seem, she said.
“It was amazing, when I turned over in the night it was like a moving ocean,” she said. “When I was in the bed the rice had a really nice subtle scent, and it was a soft enjoyable thing to hold in your hands.”
People have already started to book the beds on the website Airbnb, although some of the bookers may have mistaken the art exhibit for more legitimate lodging, said LeRoux. For those who decide to spend a night on the art beds, she recommends wearing clothes that they don’t mind getting dirty.
A shower is available in the gallery.
“(Untitled) Four Beds” at Idio Gallery (976 Grand St., Studio D, between Morgan Avenue and Waterbury Street in Williamsburg, www.idiog
