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拍品专文
Issy Wood’s Fanta Car Interior belongs to a celebrated series of paintings in which the artist challenges the macho nature of car culture. “I think of cars as quite a masculine environment,” Wood has been quoted as saying. “The car is an escape for a man, it's where one can experience a kind of freedom—or at least that’s how advertising sells a car: a way to get away from the wife and kids… It’s fun to try that on for size, to see what it would be like to be a man for whom this is a desirable object” (I. Wood, quoted by S. McCrory, in “Issy Wood in Conversation with Sarah McCrory”, Luncheon, No. 8, 2019, p. 61). In the present work, Woods upends the tropes and conventions that have held sway in the male-dominated advertising industry for decades to present a provocative new image of a classic car. She paints a closely cropped rendering of the car’s interior, turning a vision of power and machismo into a series of seductive curves and tangible surfaces. Rendered with sensuality and tactility, Woods takes the iconography of masculinity to a whole new level.
On her signature velvet support, she paints a closely cropped view of what appears to be the luxurious interior of a classic Porsche. Viewed through the open door, the serpentine forms of the highly modelled leather seats invite the viewer to sit back and enjoy the ride. Each element of the interior, from the surfaces and finishes to the mechanical hardware is rendered in exacting detail. Wood utilizes the existing color of her velvet support to imbue the interior with warm and luxurious tones, creating the appearance of solidity and volume by painting the white highlights of light that reflect off the surfaces. This, together with the inherent tactility of the velvet surface, produces a sensual atmosphere that is rich with association.
Cars have been part of American culture since Henry Ford first produced his famous Model T automobile in 1908. In the intervening century, they have come to represent freedom, prosperity, and ultimately—for a generation of men—an outward symbol of masculinity. Many artists including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Richard Prince have used the hyper-machismo of the automobile as their subject matter, but Woods is the first to portray car culture from a female perspective. Her choice to closely crop the interior of the car, and focus heavily on the quality of materials, counteracts the male obsession with outward appearance and embellishment.
Born in America, Wood is a peripatetic painter, writer, and musician. She moved to London to further her education, graduating from the art school at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2015 and the Royal Academy Schools in 2018. She often turns to the luxurious richness of velvet as the ‘canvas’ for her paintings and transforms everyday objects into provocative and enticing investigations into materiality. During her studies at the Royal Academy, Wood became fascinated by the glossy pages of old auction catalogues (including those for classic cars), examining them, and fascinated by the sheer volume of property that is brought in and out of the public’s attention. She, too, noticed the overwhelmingly fleeting nature of content in today’s social media; the influx of images that dance on and off of the screen is the product of mass consumerism and the demand for the oversaturation of content. This enigma of the contemporary age is at the foundation of Wood’s diverse and strangely familiar universe of images.
On her signature velvet support, she paints a closely cropped view of what appears to be the luxurious interior of a classic Porsche. Viewed through the open door, the serpentine forms of the highly modelled leather seats invite the viewer to sit back and enjoy the ride. Each element of the interior, from the surfaces and finishes to the mechanical hardware is rendered in exacting detail. Wood utilizes the existing color of her velvet support to imbue the interior with warm and luxurious tones, creating the appearance of solidity and volume by painting the white highlights of light that reflect off the surfaces. This, together with the inherent tactility of the velvet surface, produces a sensual atmosphere that is rich with association.
Cars have been part of American culture since Henry Ford first produced his famous Model T automobile in 1908. In the intervening century, they have come to represent freedom, prosperity, and ultimately—for a generation of men—an outward symbol of masculinity. Many artists including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Richard Prince have used the hyper-machismo of the automobile as their subject matter, but Woods is the first to portray car culture from a female perspective. Her choice to closely crop the interior of the car, and focus heavily on the quality of materials, counteracts the male obsession with outward appearance and embellishment.
Born in America, Wood is a peripatetic painter, writer, and musician. She moved to London to further her education, graduating from the art school at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2015 and the Royal Academy Schools in 2018. She often turns to the luxurious richness of velvet as the ‘canvas’ for her paintings and transforms everyday objects into provocative and enticing investigations into materiality. During her studies at the Royal Academy, Wood became fascinated by the glossy pages of old auction catalogues (including those for classic cars), examining them, and fascinated by the sheer volume of property that is brought in and out of the public’s attention. She, too, noticed the overwhelmingly fleeting nature of content in today’s social media; the influx of images that dance on and off of the screen is the product of mass consumerism and the demand for the oversaturation of content. This enigma of the contemporary age is at the foundation of Wood’s diverse and strangely familiar universe of images.