a little recap on ⌁Resisting the Factory-made (car)Body⌁
Mx. ⌁Ferrari Red⌁ was exhibited at
@z33be as a part of “Fields of Industry”, a Studio Technogeographies exhibition, curated by
@martina.muzi
Despite a hyper-masculine car culture, car modification can be imagined as challenging standards in its resistance to the factory-made car. “Just because it has been materialized in a specific way in the car factory, this does not mean this is the way the car should look” (Balkmar, 2012). A car’s physical form can be transformed, its personality and identity altered.
Using car modification as a theoretical framework, standards can be built upon and recasted. Rules can be rewritten. A culture built with barriers can be accessed, masculinity can be modified and destabilized. As a practical framework, methods of car modification are practices of talking through one’s body, altering the architecture through an embodied practice.
These body panels are built from a combination of standardized forms—male, female, and car bodies. The forms are used to modify and transform one another, some forms become ambiguous or unrecognizable, expressing dissonance with the "essential" body. This project emulates and transforms processes of car manufacturing and car modification, and creates a reflection space where taken-for-granted standards are questioned and negotiated, where misalignments that don’t adhere to the cultural ideological mainstream are centered.
