Highways, Freeways, Autobahns and Motorways: A7 (Route du Soleil) and A52 (2015–16)
Mixed-media installation commissioned for the 13th Biennale of Lyon, which used blown-out tyres from nearby road arteries.
- Submitting institution
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Kingston University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 32-77-0000
- Type
- L - Artefact
- Location
- 13th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France and CAPRI, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Open access status
- -
- Month of production
- September
- Year of production
- 2015
- URL
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https://capri-raum.com/exhibitions/mike-nelson
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- A7 (Route du Soleil) (2015–16) was commissioned for the 13th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, FR, 10 September 2015–3 January 2016, and installed in a former sugar warehouse. A52 (2017) was commissioned by CAPRI exhibition space in Düsseldorf, DE, 8 September–8 October 2017. The works are the second and third instalment in the series Highways, Freeways, Autobahns and Motorways, which uses blown-out tyres from nearby road arteries, referencing works by Allan Kaprow, J. G. Ballard and On Kawara. They are part of a line of enquiry that includes a deadpan articulation of matter – the tyres. The first work in the series was shown in Birmingham (M6, 2012–13) and an exhibition is planned for London (2021). These cities have specific relationships to their local roadways and are sites of old industry and thoroughfare.
The tyres for these exhibitions were salvaged from the road running through Lyon to Marseille, leading from central France to the Mediterranean coast; and a commuter route running from the Dutch-German border through Düsseldorf city centre, DE. The ‘route of the Sun’ moniker adds a mythological aspect to the A7 exhibition; the rudimentary plinths from rebar mesh and concrete echo the road construction often found in hot climates. As part of a serial work, the ‘tyre pieces’ are re-examined and re-imagined for each site, the repeated use of the tyres accentuating our inescapable relationship to them. The tyres show marks of violence and rupture: they are blown-out, ripped and torn by impact or from wear. They are symbolic of a world in which resources are consumed at frightening speed. The impact we have on a weary planet is something we often choose to ignore; however, the idea of impact underlines the power of these works, in terms of the very way these objects were made.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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