Carnal low rider kitsch : Reuel Dechenes
Artguise
Paring down one of the icons of our century, the car, Reuel Dechene transforms the humble hub cap into a brilliantly lit mandala-like pulsating metallic ball. These are a low-tech product of this millennium.
"#2 Cyclonic Reducer". This Chevrolet Motor Division hub cap looks like it was made to be rigged this way. The diamond and triangular shaped wedges in its outer rim reflect the criss-cross bars wrapped around the center. White x-mas lights form geometric shapes that look like arms, and around this center, lights spiral around to the outer rim. The affect is entrancing.
Cyclone 2 is one of 14 hub caps rigged by Reuel Dechene in "Carnal - low rider kitsch", currently pulsing away above the art supply displays at Artguise, the art store and gallery on Bank.
Choosing to ignore the standard male interior decorating accessories—empty pizza boxes—as a student Dechene drew inspiration from x-mas lights. "When I was looking for a cheap way to decorate my apartment," he says, he thought to use cheap miniature lights from Jean Coutu. Later, he became interested in sequenced lights, making signs for cultural events in town.
"I do get a lot of taxis in my neighbourhood, living in Centretown," notes Dechene of looking for hub caps, "and they're all like 15-20 years old. I usually luck into them in spring time when highways and roads are in their worst shape." Once the cap is found, it can take Dechene anywhere from 20 to 60 hours to clean the cap and rig it with lights.
As well as the obvious—Christmas—their circular design conjures up images of Catherine wheel fireworks and Spirograph, a children's game. Using circular plastic templates, one template's teeth fitting into the other, complex symmetrical circular or oval designs can easily be produced.
In India, I remember a Hindu bus driver who had literally created a shrine on the inside of his bus. Along with plastic figurines of his chosen God set up in a miniature matching mandir or temple and 2-d brilliantly coloured reproductions, he had strung tinsel, bright metallic wire, and x-mas lights all around the front of the bus. I journeyed in a mobile house of God.
Like mandalas, a religious art form constructed of circles layered within each other, the hub caps are mesmerizing. The archetypal quality of the circular form, as old as life itself, combined with the symbolic weight of the car, the over-the-top kitsch and the flashing sequenced lights—looking at one of them, I had a hard time pulling my gaze away. To top it all, the caps are interactive. Each one is equipped with a switch that allows the viewer to change the sequencing of the lights.
I can see this as being many people's answer to getting another Christmas tree, or equally, as an ingenious alternate to the dance club crystal ball. Can you imagine a car rigged up with these caps? They would turn even a Lada into a chariot of light.
Published in The Ottawa Xpress, 1999
"#2 Cyclonic Reducer". This Chevrolet Motor Division hub cap looks like it was made to be rigged this way. The diamond and triangular shaped wedges in its outer rim reflect the criss-cross bars wrapped around the center. White x-mas lights form geometric shapes that look like arms, and around this center, lights spiral around to the outer rim. The affect is entrancing.
Cyclone 2 is one of 14 hub caps rigged by Reuel Dechene in "Carnal - low rider kitsch", currently pulsing away above the art supply displays at Artguise, the art store and gallery on Bank.
Choosing to ignore the standard male interior decorating accessories—empty pizza boxes—as a student Dechene drew inspiration from x-mas lights. "When I was looking for a cheap way to decorate my apartment," he says, he thought to use cheap miniature lights from Jean Coutu. Later, he became interested in sequenced lights, making signs for cultural events in town.
"I do get a lot of taxis in my neighbourhood, living in Centretown," notes Dechene of looking for hub caps, "and they're all like 15-20 years old. I usually luck into them in spring time when highways and roads are in their worst shape." Once the cap is found, it can take Dechene anywhere from 20 to 60 hours to clean the cap and rig it with lights.
As well as the obvious—Christmas—their circular design conjures up images of Catherine wheel fireworks and Spirograph, a children's game. Using circular plastic templates, one template's teeth fitting into the other, complex symmetrical circular or oval designs can easily be produced.
In India, I remember a Hindu bus driver who had literally created a shrine on the inside of his bus. Along with plastic figurines of his chosen God set up in a miniature matching mandir or temple and 2-d brilliantly coloured reproductions, he had strung tinsel, bright metallic wire, and x-mas lights all around the front of the bus. I journeyed in a mobile house of God.
Like mandalas, a religious art form constructed of circles layered within each other, the hub caps are mesmerizing. The archetypal quality of the circular form, as old as life itself, combined with the symbolic weight of the car, the over-the-top kitsch and the flashing sequenced lights—looking at one of them, I had a hard time pulling my gaze away. To top it all, the caps are interactive. Each one is equipped with a switch that allows the viewer to change the sequencing of the lights.
I can see this as being many people's answer to getting another Christmas tree, or equally, as an ingenious alternate to the dance club crystal ball. Can you imagine a car rigged up with these caps? They would turn even a Lada into a chariot of light.
Published in The Ottawa Xpress, 1999
