I say Volvo, you say potato the latest exhibition on at the Stanley Picker exhibition, encompasses design around the themes of nostalgia as well as the re purposing of materials. The exhibition uses man made materials but resonates with the idea of process and potato printing.
The outsourced Volvo stands proud as a focal point to the exhibition in an almost totemic fashion, the idol to which we should worship for having created the surrounding pieces of work. The aptly named yellow ‘banana car’ plays on the themes of nostalgia. The car named by a friend’s younger daughter brings in personal elements and enhances the themes of nostalgia for something that was central to family life and creating memories.
The ink for the printing process was also recovered from the car giving the prints upon plywood an interesting sheen and hints to the viewer the processes that happened to create the work which is another central idea to the exhibition.
Moreover, the exhibition is refreshing, as it plays to its design undertones, and the design and work that goes into the construction of a car and vice versa its deconstruction. There are both 2D products that have been created from the original 3D elements giving a sense of a full circle of the life of the Volvo it is almost personified through its name and deconstruction. The vehicle has been reborn after the death of its original purpose and has found a new purpose, reiterating its totemic stance in the middle of the exhibition space.
