Statistics tell us we’re spending more time than ever behind the wheel, as the average work-home commute continues to rise to 63 minutes. Though many of us go through the daily grind unaware of the fact that our time behind the wheel is continually re-defining and re-shaping our experience of reality, an understanding of the windshield as a growing cultural lens has characterized the work of a number of artists since the late 1960’s. Bringing together the work of eighteen different artists, Auto-Motive: View From the Windshield explores notions of place, perception and emotional experience as seen through the interior of a car.
Installation view of Auto-Motive: World From the Windshield. Photo: Veronica Scarpati
With people spending a greater amount of time behind the wheel, the windshield has increasingly come to function as a global framing device, mediating our relationship between us and our immediate surroundings.
IAIN BAXTER&, Highway, Northern California, 1979, Chromira print.
Though we may travel the same roads and frequent the same streets, our perceptions of the passing landscape are unique. Reflecting the diversity of these mixed perspectives, the exhibition encompasses a diverse range of artworks in a variety of media, including painting, photography and video.
The exhibition encompasses a range of artworks across a variety of media. Photo: KJ Bedford
Visitors enjoying Maria Penner Bancroft’s O Waly Waly (Leaving Suffolk) 2012-13. Photo: Veronica Scarpati
Given the speeds at which we travel, the landscape appears in a constant state of flux, and our experiences are increasingly formed by mere passing glimpses. The brevity of our encounters with the natural world and our growing detachment from nature are themes that alternately treated by a number of artists across the exhibit.
Monica Tap explores the brevity of the passing landscape in her 2012 series, Borealis. Photo: KJ Bedford
Our detachment from the natural world is emphasized in IAIN BAXTER&’s Cows, Gaspe Bay, Quebec, 1969.
Though many of the works celebrate a culture rooted in freedom and limitless possibility, IAIN BAXTER&, reminds us that this freedom is not always complete. Pointing to his 1968 Passing Through, Trans Canada Highway, the artist—who was present at the opening—remarked, “We’re always moving forward, yes; but we’re also always looking back to see what’s coming behind.” The sense that we’re not entirely autonomous, that we’re dependent upon our surroundings, is exquisitely reflected in his early lightbox.
IAIN BAXTER& with wife Louise, in front of Passing Through, Trans Canada Highway, 1968. Photo: Veronica Scarpati
The interplay between limitation and freedom is a theme likewise explored in Stan Denniston’s from as far away as hope. Though a vast stretch of highway enables us to conquer the Nevada desert, our path is set and our direction limited; we’re only as free as our roads make us.
Stan Denniston, from as far away as hope (production still), 2003, chromogenic print.
Auto-Motive: World from the Windshield runs until August 31, 2013 and is showing concurrently at Oakville Galleries at Gairloch Gardens and Centennial Square in Oakville.
Veronica Scarpati