Crime Scene Motel Project

Motel rooms are characterised by impermanence and anonymity: liminal spaces of temporary occupation for a population of strangers that moves in one day and checks-out the next. Motels are often not destinations in themselves but, rather, fleeting accommodation for travellers on the road, moving between places. The intimate connection with mobility and vehicles is implicit in the name: with the rise of the car, the early twentieth-century 'motor hotel' became the mo-tel.

Motel rooms can be understood as vessels containing the traces of accumulated human experience and, sometimes, transgression. McKay's criminal law research of motel rooms uncovers them as occasional sites for clandestine mobile drug labs, sexual violence and hideouts for fugitives from the law. Offenders/guests might come and go, but affected motel rooms hold the ghosts of criminal activities.

Neon signs designed in collaboration with Nick Creecy 2022. With thanks to Alexi Creecy and Brian Joyce for installation assistance at Scratch Art Space solo show.

Exhibited Scratch Art Space 2022. Certain works selected for 2022 Lake Art Prize – Museum of Art & Culture (MAC), Yapang; 2023 Blacktown City Art Prize – The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre; and 2023 COLLECT at the Lock-Up, Newcastle.

McKay's 'Crime Scene Motel Project' exhibition recently received the 2023 'Non-Traditional Research Output Award' from the Australian Legal Research Awards, a prestigious national scheme funded by the Council of Australian Law Deans.