DEATH PROOF
DEATH PROOF is a collaborative work by WEIRD COUNTRY's Jasmine Tan & Andrei Jewell, placing itself in a liminal space by applying interdisciplinary practices ranging from the anthropological to the ritualistic.
New Agendas for an Old Paradigm
A series of installation work curated and photographed by Andrei Jewell.
A set of found objects is approached from an energetic perspective, addressed and transformed from their original function, turning on its ear to reveal poetic narratives as totemic objects imbued with new meanings far from its intended use. The re-workings of these abandoned objects celebrate the qualities of the common thing and invite us to pay fresh attention to the world they come from. At times with an economy, wit, and ‘light touch’, the work also conveys an ethical challenge: to be alert, to participate, to converse.
For the DEATH PROOF series, a group of 1930’s automobile headlamps have been apprehended part way through the process of decay and re-presented to offer insights to the various pursuits of humankind’s activities - in a historical, present and futuristic context. The re-appropriated forms become the focus of a study of the subtle and ephemeral traces of an age that now defines the one we currently live in: The Anthropocene, an informal geologic chronological term that serves to mark the evidence and extent of human activities that have a significant global impact on the earth’s ecosystems.
Gathering physical evidence is part of WEIRD COUNTRY’s forensic based activity with the works of DEATH PROOF. A title that denotes the primary and eternal quality of the principle law of nature - in that matter is never lost, the forms that it inhabits only change in a constant cycle of flux. So it also goes with the concerns of humankind. Our activities of survival, rituals of power, politics, relationships and religion - always in flux and yet somehow ever the same in the never ending pursuit of locality and identity.
By animating them through various arrangments, new narratives emerge through old stories, old stories told through renewed dispositions, different realities collect, time collapses, space expands, we become involved in our fascination of their endless personas. These manifold directions explore a variety of philosophical concerns engaged with unmasking a lurking reality of a human function or dysfunction - often indicated in conjunction with the title of the work itself.
The cone shapes often can act like archetypical symbols that trigger memories. As Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung puts it, “a primary method for making sense of the world is by interpreting its symbols. We decode meaning through images and, often without realizing, are swayed by the power of their attendant associations.”
The conical object conjures up notions from natural forms, architecture, ballistics, spiritual symbology and alchemy. Nature again underscores the central concern underpinning all these observations - that of our human urge to survive amidst the forces of nature. The print works reflect these forces at work on the decaying metal of the 80 year old hulks of car bodies left outside in the weather and barren landscape in which they were found.
The endless action of the elements themselves reflected in the metal surfaces offer not only a poetic commentary about the passage of time but a re-reading of the ‘universal hand’ of the rain clouds at work upon the surfaces of the objects and thus the landscape in which they were found. A small but significant part of that hand is the revelation of relentless industry of mankind’s endeavors and impact upon the surface the Earth, where all forms simply become matter and energy again in an eternal cycle of becoming, that which is death proof.
A Work by Jasmine Chen
arising from the 'Death Proof' work
9 sections of writings and images
2015 - 2018
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Methodology
The IMAGES Works
1 The Nameless and the Yet Unnamed
2 The Many Faces of the Inexplicable One
3 Riders of the Electric Storm
5 Dharma Executed that Brushstroke of Life
7 The Infinite Mechanism of the Immortal Sleeve
8 Galactic Encounters of the Hydrogen Explorer
9 The Ones that Time Forgot
10 Keepers of the Prismatic Shrine
11 Speaking Totems at the Portals of Dawn
12 Kraken Scrolls of the Oneiric Seas
13 Tribe of Light Feet and Strong Hearts
14 Creatures Wishing to Remain Unresolved
15 The Universe in a Plankton
16 Evolution of the Planetesimal Species
17 A Prologue Set in the Times of Prehistoric Slime
Mirroring, inversing, layering, applying various effects digitally, of photographic images of deteriorating rusting metal surfaces of automobiles left out in the scrapyard for decades. Made the first image with a face by chance, became a never ending spawning. An incidental act that became an intense body of work. By a certain time, a realisation came, that a vessel I have become, through which the many faces and the yet unnamed are executing their brushstrokes of life.
The WRITINGS Works
4 Ciphered Messages of the Inundated Qwerty
18 Hyperbolic Aphorisms from the Far Side
Typing fervently gibberish with auto-correct and later re-arranging the words with varying degrees of conscious intervention. Did not mar authorship nor alter any effort for an authentic writing experience, instead overwhelmed by a baffling encounter with words, words that have a secret dimension the way they are involved with one another. What emerged is a revealing text reveling in layers of codes, from within and without, disparate yet precise. These 9 chapters of 108 verses suspended in infinite space yet set in the stones of ages past.
6 The Book of Second Chance
Excerpts from the Ciphered Messages, selected with the enigma of human condition in mind.
When the art comes from regions beyond
and takes the artist on a journey of unravelling
across the openness
where there is no measure
of the self
of anything
time becomes space
infinite and present
Gratitude, wonder and love filled these days.
An aspect of the universal I became privy to.
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The 18 titles are presented in a 540 x 540mm handmade box set,
As well as large prints in various sizes.
DEATH PROOF
New Agendas for an Old Paradigm
A series of installation works staged and photographed amidst ongoing musings on subjects around these objects.
A set of found objects is approached from an energetic perspective, addressed and transformed from their original function, turning on its ear to reveal poetic narratives as totemic objects imbued with new meanings far from its intended use. The re-workings of these abandoned objects celebrate the qualities of the common thing and invite us to pay fresh attention to the world they come from. At times with an economy, wit, and ‘light touch’, the work also conveys an ethical challenge: to be alert, to participate, to converse.
By animating them through various arrangments, new narratives emerge through old stories, old stories told through renewed dispositions, different realities collect, time collapses, space expands, we become involved in our fascination of their endless personas. These manifold directions explore a variety of philosophical concerns engaged with unmasking a lurking reality of a human function or dysfunction - often indicated in conjunction with the title of the work itself.
The conical object conjures up notions from natural forms, architecture, ballistics, spiritual symbology and alchemy. The cone shapes often can act like archetypical symbols that trigger memories. As Carl Jung puts it, “a primary method for making sense of the world is by interpreting its symbols. We decode meaning through images and, often without realizing, are swayed by the power of their attendant associations.”
For the DEATH PROOF series, a group of 1930’s automobile headlamps have been apprehended part way through the process of decay and re-presented to offer insights to the various pursuits of humankind’s activities - in a historical, present and futuristic context. The re-appropriated forms become the focus of a study of the subtle and ephemeral traces of an age that now defines the one we currently live in: The Anthropocene, an informal geologic chronological term that serves to mark the evidence and extent of human activities that have a significant global impact on the earth’s ecosystems.
From Shells to Totems
The process of restoring deteroriating objects while preserving as much as possible their existing condition.
These old headlamps were found on a journey through magnificent landscapes. Bringing them back to work on, another journey begins, a microcosmic journey, once again through magnificent landscapes, landscapes etched on these metal shells, collapsing time and space.
The relentless physical process of smoothening every bit of uneveness means one has to traverse the entire surface of these metal bodies, until all terrains are explored and rough areas flattened. Revisitng them again and again, each time a new trip, each trip new findings.
Soon these trips begin to have an effect on the mind, body and soul. The mind becomes meditative, the body strained, and the soul senses a rarefied presence as we discover the uncanny beauty of these seemingly unruly layers of paint and rust with their peelings, scratches, cavities, dirt, mold, accumulating with age. These etchings of time, rendered by the forces of nature.
The rigorous work of flattening out the roughness becomes delightful days where we encounter creatures we recognise or imagine, we begin to see stories forming through these markings, some we see again and again, some flashing by and are gone. The camel with red lips, the shiny royal poodle, the savage soldier with red flag red boots and mask, crossing the yellow sea, the forgotten wild tribe whose leader is a fat chick.
These encounters are collected in Forensics of the Land: Atmospheric Renderings
Forensics of the Land
A series of photographic works documenting the effects of elements of nature on objects left to deteroriate.
The photographic works reflect the forces of nature at work on the decaying metal of the 80 year old hulks of car bodies left outside in the weather and barren landscape in which they were found.
The endless action of the elements themselves reflected in the metal surfaces offer not only a poetic commentary about the passage of time but a re-reading of the ‘universal hand’ of the rain clouds at work upon the surfaces of the objects and thus the landscape in which they were found. A small but significant part of that hand is the revelation of relentless industry of mankind’s endeavors and impact upon the surface the Earth, where all forms simply become matter and energy again in an eternal cycle of becoming, that which is death proof.
From Shells to Totems
The process of restoring the deteroriating
objects while preserving their existing condition,
We encountered these objects on a journey through magnificent landscapes. We brought them back, and we find ourselves on another journey, a microcosmic journey, once again through magnificent landscapes, landscapes etched on these metal shells, collapsing dimensions and realities.
These headlamps served out their purpose as functional parts of a vehicle to illuminate the driving path, and perhaps more significantly as a symbol of power and prestige the automobile represents. Now old and and defunct, their reality enters another phase as they are subjected to the elements of decay. As the weather continually changes, the decaying process gains momentum, randomly but surely, endowing these abandoned shells with layers of textures and colours that can only be built upon through the passage of time. Rot, rust, mold, peels and all, this is random and unique for there is none that is the same and no an other.
The physical process of uncovering and restoring, brings out a creative process of probing, wondering, extracting, eventually evolving into a poetic narrative. Sorting out these objects from an annonymous pile of dusty wreck and individualising them, the objects become spellbound with the energies of their history, revealing their own numerous stories through layers of decay.
The opulent automobiles of the 1930s were symbols of pride and prosperity for the privileged and elite. The headlamps positioned forward is the extension of the steer, the driving force towards industrial progress, a projector of purpose and ambition. In its restored state the headlamp sits face down, literary being turned on its ear, it elicits a different reading. A totem enacting a ritual. Purpose and function dissolving into the auric, enabling receptivity, activating energetic fields. Of the object and yet beyond, transcending its own form, becoming timeless and therefore Death Proof.
also a a microcosmic journey across an other universe
The relentless physical process of smoothening every bit of uneveness means one has to traverse the entire surface of these metal bodies, until all terrains are explored and rough areas flattened. Revisitng them again and again, each time a new trip, each trip new findings.
Soon these trips begin to have an effect on the mind, body and soul. The mind becomes meditative, the body strained, and the soul senses a rarefied presence, as we encounter an unusual finding of beauty in these seemingly unruly layers of paint and rust with their peelings, scratches, cavities, dirt, mold, accumulated with age. These etchings of time, rendered by the forces of nature.
Scanning across these markings and at the same time drawn into the details, it is a stupendous moment between devouring and savouring, between a wild dance and esoteric knowledge. In this sublime flurry we begin to examine and adore these as art itself.
In this sense, this is not a creative process of making in as much as it is one of revelation. These journeys across these microcosmic landscapes have made art out of these objects and the art in turn brings forth the artist.
The rigorous work of flattening out the roughness becomes delightful days where we encounter creatures we recognise or imagine, as stories begin to form through these markings, some we see again and again, some flashing by and are gone. The odd camel with red lips, the silver royal poodle, the savage soldier with flag and mask, crossing the yellow seas, the new creatures of the marshland.
These journeys and encounters are collected in Forensics of the Land: Atmospheric Renderings.
Forensics of the Land
Photographic works documenting the effects of elements of nature on objects left to deteriorate.
The photographic works reflect the forces of nature at work on the decaying metal of the many decades old hulks of car bodies left outside in the weather and barren landscape in which they were found.
The endless action of the elements themselves reflected in the metal surfaces offer not only a poetic commentary about the passage of time but a re-reading of the ‘universal hand’ of the rain clouds at work upon the surfaces of the objects and thus the landscape in which they were found. A small but significant part of that hand is the revelation of relentless industry of mankind’s endeavors and impact upon the surface the Earth, where all forms simply become matter and energy again in an eternal cycle of becoming, that which is Death Proof.
Revealed Landscapes, Forgotten Topographies / Andrei Jewell
Radiant Fields, Atmospheric Renderings / Jasmine Tan