Behind The Artwork – Waldorf Astoria Kuwait

Interior render of hotel corridors by LW Design

We invite you to take a journey through the creative development of a series of artworks we conceptualized and developed for The Waldorf Astoria, our first luxury hotel project in Kuwait City.

Capsule Arts were presented with a brief by LW Design to develop a series of 39 artworks for the corridors leading to the guest rooms, that would be repeated across 7 floors. This was a unique challenge due to the large quantity of artworks per floor and the requirement to have variety to ensure interest, yet also maintain a cohesive look.  The artworks also needed to incorporate a 3d element which added another level of challenge in terms of production of a large quantity of pieces in a feasible way.

The vision for the design of the pieces was to tie in the various elements of the art narrative we had explored in the design of the hotel artwork package, which came together to create an overarching “Sense of Kuwait”, while nodding to the deep blues in the interior color palette, and bringing in a luxurious element.

The art narrative elements included drawing inspiration from the country’s maritime history – celestial navigation, boat-building, and trading routes, that resulted in the prosperity of Kuwait by making it the principal commercial centre for the transit of goods between India and the Gulf in the eighteenth century. The country prospered through the trade of spices and pearls, until the discovery of petroleum “liquid gold” in the twentieth century. 

Multiple aspects of the local landscape were also explored – from the natural landscape of desert sands and sea, local plants, and birds, in juxtaposition to elements of the skyline and various architectural details representing the cityscape. Cultural traditions, Arabic calligraphy, and heritage details and textiles have also been explored in our art narrative to bring in and inform authentic moments.  

Below are a selection of images that we gathered while building the art narrative.

Because of the richness of the story elements and the variety we sought to bring into the corridor artworks, we chose to take a layered approach of print and string, where luxurious champagne metallic thread, speaking to the “liquid gold” component of the narrative, would be overlaid on loose, watery printed backgrounds of rich blues that brought in the story of the sea.  The concept of the string also brings in the ancient idea of celestial navigation.

String artist Irina Paramonova was commissioned to develop a series of 12 unique designs for the string artworks, each of which would be inspired by various components of the narrative.  Each of the commissioned designs would be paired with one of 12 background variations, that were sourced from stock imagery and colour edited inhouse.

In order to ensure the translation of the pieces to the scale of production we required, we also commissioned Irina to create a prototype which was then reproduced by one of our production partners in China, who specializes in creating high-end 2D and 3D wall art in mixed mediums.

Below we demonstrate how one of the 12 variations came together in three steps, from inspiration, to the sketching of the string artworks, to finally bringing it all together with the background.

In keeping with the interior design intent, the three-dimensional artworks will be finished with a black wood frame and wide white circular mount, that juxtaposes against the moody water background while elevating the metallic string artwork layered on top.

Below, we have created an image to reflect the final result. We look forward to sharing the images of the completed installation with you soon!