Arabella Proffer

CLEVELAND, Ohio Not a week goes by when someone doesnt ask Cleveland artist Arabella Proffer to come look at their restroom.

No, shes not getting into bathroom design or doubling as a plumber.

Word has gotten out that the Cleveland painter undertook an unusual new project: documenting the most interesting restrooms of Cleveland.

Her new book, aptly titled The Restrooms of Cleveland will be released this week. Proffer will celebrate the launch with a party at Judds City Tavern, 10323 Madison Avenue, from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5.

Arabella Proffer

Proffer, a pop-surrealist graduate of the California Institute of the Arts

who has shown in Germany, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Santa Fe and Buffalo in the last year, never intended for her project to become a book.

I was at 78th Street Studios about three years ago and just started posting photos from all these really un-remodeled 60s bathrooms. I shared them on Instagram and got a good response to started sharing more and more.

People took notice.

All of these people who dont even live in Cleveland were like you should do a book, and I was like haha. I had not intention of doing anything with it.

Arabella Proffer: Hotz Cafe

A friend changed her mind.

In 2017, Dott Schneider was doing a story about my Gurls drawings for Scene magazine, about a show I had in Germany. During the interview, she said lets go and look at bathrooms. In the piece, she wrote that I was going to be doing a book about bathrooms. I said I guess I have to follow up now.

The result is a full-color 9-by-6 , 83-page photo book of non-stop in your face thrills of interior design and restrooms stuck in time.

More than 400 pictures document 80 of Clevelands most interesting toilets. They include bars, theaters, warehouses, grocery stores, dental offices, auto garages, utility buildings, private clubs, pinball arcades, museums, schools, breweries, retirement homes, churches, furniture stores and coffee shops.

Once word got out, the bathroom invitations started coming. I was even invited into a few private homes, she says.

Arabella Proffer: LCC

I could have kept going and going, this could have been a 300-page Taschen-style book.

Does Proffer have a favorite restroom?

The tile work at Stone Mad is pretty amazing. And Lorain Community College has these restrooms that look like those at the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Arabella Proffer: Mahall's

Judds will be serving specialty cocktails at the party, and Proffer plans to get a toilet roll shaped cake, too. Bonus: Judds restrooms are actually in the book.

The mens is very cool, its covered in comic book pages, she says. The womens room has lots of tchotchkes.

Arabella Proffer

More here:
New book goes behind closed doors to explore 'The Restrooms of Cleveland' - cleveland.com

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December 8, 2019 at 1:45 pm by Mr HomeBuilder
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