One Day Sculpture: Poor-Racer

MEDIA RELEASE 3 March 2009

Thomas Hirschhorn, Poor-Racer, Rue Henri Murger, Aubervilliers, France, 2009. Photo courtesy the artist.

Poor-Racer

Sumner’s Esplanade is to feature a new sculptural work by the international artist Thomas Hirschhorn developed specifically for Christchurch and part of the New Zealand-wide One Day Sculpture series of temporary public artworks.

Presented by The Physics Room and Christchurch Art Gallery, the Poor-Racer sculpture will exist for just 24 hours - from midnight Saturday 14 March to midnight Sunday 15 March - at a location on the Esplanade where it is expected to attract the attention of both car enthusiasts and the general public.

The dramatically customised car is typical of Hirschhorn’s low budget transformations, and Poor-Racer has been developed specifically for Christchurch as part of the New Zealand-wide One Day Sculpture series. Hirschhorn says it references the global enthusiasm for car customisation evident in the lowered, louder, brighter and bolder DIY modifications seen parading city streets.

"I am interested in the form that is created by customising or tuning a car. Customising or tuning is an act of resistance to the non-written laws of all kinds of exclusion. In the desperate and useless act of car-tuning, I see a form of resistance through form. And as an artist, what can interest me more than form?"

One of the most significant artists working in contemporary sculptural practice today, Thomas Hirschhorn was born in Switzerland and is currently based in France. Poor-Racer is commissioned by The Physics Room in association with Christchurch Art Gallery.

The Poor-Racer sculpture will be on Sumner’s Esplanade from midnight Saturday 14 March to midnight Sunday 15 March 2009.

ENDS

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