Arctic Heat from the series Car Nuggets GL, 2001
fibreglass and automotive paint, unique work
100 x 100 x 100 cm
Provenance
Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
One Night Love, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, 2001
Call of the Wild - Patricia Piccinini, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 15 August - 29 September 2002
Literature
Rachel Kent, Call of the Wild - Patricia Piccinini, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2002, illus. p.38-39; p.56
"Piccinini's car nuggets, developed in prototype in 1999 and fully realised as Car Nuggets GL (2001-02), represent the 'essence' of the modern car with its sleek curves, designer detailing and custom painting. Compressed into multi-coloured, nugget-shaped discs, they epitomise the fast-food nature of consumerism with its attractive packaging, ready accessibility, and standardised forms. As one writer observes, cars are the quintessential machine of our time: intimately familiar to us, home to our most private moments, a site where body and metal meet. Artificiality and the sheen of the new permeates these works, their gleaming surfaces and catchy by-line ('they're good for you!') epitomising all that is attractive and repellent in the world of capitalism. On viewing these works, we might conclude that the showy appeal of consumerism is ultimately confounded by the shallowness of its wares." (Rachel Kent, 'Fast forward: accelerated evolution', Call of the Wild, op.cit.; p.6)
