in online exhibition 55 Years of Schellmann Art
Car on Bricks, 2008
From Wall Works
Wall drawing in black paint or charcoal, and bricks. Size variable but close to the original size of the car depicted. Different models of cars out of which one or several car drawings can be installed. Limited to 15 installations, with a signed and numbered certificate giving specific instructions for on-site installation.
Robin Rhode’s Car on Bricks edition is a wall installation that fuses drawing and sculpture in a characteristically witty and socially charged gesture. A full-scale outline of a car is drawn directly onto the wall in black paint or charcoal, its illusionary presence interrupted only by two stacks of real bricks where the wheels would be – evoking the familiar sight of a stripped vehicle left on blocks in an urban environment. The piece plays with the boundary between image and object, between fiction and lived experience. By combining the ephemeral quality of a wall drawing with the physicality of actual bricks, Rhode transforms a symbol of mobility and status into a static, almost tragicomic scene. As in much of his work, Car on Bricks draws from the visual language of Johannesburg’s streets, reflecting on issues of ownership, disenfranchisement, and everyday survival. The work is simultaneously humorous and poignant, inviting viewers to reflect on the socio-economic realities embedded in the most mundane urban encounters.
This work is part of the collection of the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin.
