Holbrook, Arizona

Holbrook, Arizona showcases five of 15 concrete and steel teepees arranged in a semi-circle around the main Wigwam office building, each standing 32 feet high. Dylan's soft watercolour technique transforms this architectural curiosity into an exploration of American cultural appropriation and roadside fantasy. The teepee structures, despite being technically inaccurate to their naming as “wigwams,” represent the complex relationship between authentic Native American culture and commercialised tourist attractions that flourished along Route 66. Frank A. Redford's 1936 design concept, realised here by Chester E. Lewis in 1950, embodies the optimistic entrepreneurial spirit of mid-century America, where novelty architecture could capture the imagination of cross-country travellers.

This work emphasises the surreal quality of this desert tableau, where concrete teepees stand against the vast Arizona sky like monuments to American ingenuity and cultural contradiction. The vintage automobiles displayed on the property, including Chester Lewis' original Studebaker, blur the boundaries between past and present, creating a temporal landscape where the 1950s seem perpetually frozen in time. The motel was also the inspiration for Pixar's Cars.