Autoskinning

  
   
   
 
Images
  
   
   
   

 

Axe Néo 7  (Gatineau, Canada, 2003)

Espai d’Art Contemporain Castelló  (Castelló, Spain, 2002)

Diverseworks  (Houston, USA, 2002)

Southern Exposure  (San Francisco, USA, 2002)

Latitude53  (Edmonton, Canada, 2001)

Canberra Contemporary Art Space  (Canberra, Australia, 2001)

Blue Oyster Gallery  (Dunedin, New Zealand, 2001)

 

 

Axe Néo 7  (Gatineau, Canada, 2003)


The 7th and final exhibition Autoskinning: Passive Abduction takes place in 2000 at ‘Axe Néo7’, Gatineau, Canada.
  

The ‘Autoskins’ are hung together, above the upside down tent from the Video Arcadia project.
  

The tent is pegged and hung from the ceiling of the gallery. Rubber tubes hang down into the canvas from the ‘Autoskins’

 

 

Espai d'Art Contemporain Castelló  (Castelló, Spain, 2002)


The Autoskinning: Passive Abduction project is shown in Spain at the EACC for its only group show exhibition.
  

The ‘Autoskins’ are hung from the building's ceiling with extended rubber tubes protruding from them and puncturing the walls.

 

 

Diverseworks  (Houston, USA, 2002)


The exhibition at Diverseworks is the fully realised version of the project, in which the installation is shown in its full capacity.


The 20 ‘Autoskins’ are hung up on metal tubular frames and attached by rubber tubes to the airbags in front of them.


When an airbag blows up in a car, flour is released as a lubricant to help ease it from the plastic casing it sits in.


The ‘Autoskins’ are produced from seat covers, belts, airbags and upholstery from cars that have had fatalities occur in them.

  


The ‘skins’ from the Airbag Architecture project are part of the installation as was intended when it was originally planned.


The airbags presented in Perspex cases are infront of the ‘Autoskins’ and have flour piled beneath them.


A detail shot of the ‘skins’ in the front of the gallery. The equations sewn into the airbags can be seen clearly here.


The materials were stripped from cars in scrapyards in a process akin to skinning a dead animal.

 

 

Southern Exposure  (San Francisco, USA, 2002)


Each ‘Autoskin’ represents a cocoon, transient architectures designed to carry a body after its physical state has changed.
  

Hung up to the metal frames by seat belts, rubber tubes protrude from the ‘Autoskins’ and pierce the walls.


Appearing as if they are feeding from the architecture they inhabit, the bodybags suggest they are nurturing lifeforms.
  

All the upholstery, airbags and seat covers are turned inside out and sewn together to produce the ‘Autoskins’
  

The show at ‘Southern Exposure’ is the second and final time that the metal frames are used.

 

 

Latitude53  (Edmonton, Canada, 2001)


For the exhibition at Latitude53, the ‘Autoskins’ are hung from the ceiling and have lights placed inside of them.
 

The lights in the gallery are turned off, so that the only illumination in the space is provided via the ‘Autoskins’.


Underneath each bodybag, lies a patch of flour, referring to the flour that is released when a car's airbags blow up in a crash.
  

The ‘Autoskins’ were collected from many scrapyards around the world. The project grows as it travels to different countries.
  

The ‘Autoskins’ are installed in a black humoured reference to 1970s style Science-Fiction movie sets.

 

 

Canberra Contemporary Art Space  (Canberra, Australia, 2001)


In this exhibition, motors were installed in the ‘Autoskins’ which made them move periodically, suggesting habitation within them.
 

The ‘Autoskins’ are hung at ‘CCAS’ in the most formal arrangement of any Autoskinning exhibition.



Materials are collected from an automobile scrapyard in Canberra and more pieces are sewn together whilst in residency.
 

Alluding to the design of a bodybag, each ‘Autoskin’ has a zip sewn into it, which runs down one of the sides.
  

Seatbelts are sewn into the top seam of each ‘Autoskin’ allowing them to be attached to a structure.

 

 

Blue Oyster Gallery  (Dunedin, New Zealand, 2001)


The Autoskinning project is produced for the first time whilst in residency at Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand
  

The initial exhibition has wooden mounts screwed to the ceiling to attach the seatbelts of the ‘Autoskins’ to.

 


A motor is fitted onto each ceiling mount. A metal rod is attached to each motor and enters the top of each ‘Autoskin’.
  

Throughout the exhibition, the motors turn the metal rods, which in turn causes them to subtly move the ‘Autoskins’.
  

The electrical leads to the motors are hung so that they form a web, which the cocoons / bodybags are hung within.