MATHIAS POLEDNA

The materiality and visual regimes surrounding everyday and exclusive objects have frequently been at the centre of Mathias Poledna’s film installations as well as of auxiliary and independent works produced in a variety of media. Oftentimes they are appropriated from ephemeral sources, auction house catalogues, newspapers and magazines, advertising images, and visuals from the music and popular entertainment industries.

This new group of photographic prints is based on a concise selection of historical images originally held in the archives of an Italian automotive manufacturer. Produced over the course of roughly a decade in the mid-20th century, the images Poledna draws from were made to capture the sites and stages of the automotive manufacturing process–from the casting of engines, the assembly of components, to painting, finishing, and quality control–, to document variations in individual models, and to be used for manuals, guides, and technical descriptions. In recent years, large volumes of these photographs have been made public in books for automobile enthusiasts.

Poledna’s installation of these works is complemented by the display of a single found object, a deadstock tire circa the era the photographic prints originate from. Preserved in its original protective wrapping and paper sleeve which have frayed over time the object is suggestive of an archeological remnant.

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated brochure conceived and designed by the artist.