Burnout

Outrageous bodywork, extreme performance, obsession with accessories, tuning is a conceptual combination that places aesthetic prowess well beyond the primary utility of the car. This spectacular, marginal and popular art is expensive for its enthusiasts who invest in their vehicles sums that are as impressive as their cars. But when you love, you still count and for those who can’t afford to proudly show off alloy rims, a nice chrome plastic hubcap does the job just fine. Burnout swaps materials and disrupts the hierarchical norm of the object, influencing its material, economic, and therefore aesthetic value.

Behind the window, Burnout takes place in an installation that looks like the end of a meeting. Somewhere in the mass, without enthroning, without blending, the aluminum hubcap denotes in a heap of plastic wreckage, sorry. The atmosphere is rubbish and clinical, nothing screeches anymore. Across the room, neon lights criss-cross, luminous intravenous lines that revive memories of scratched rocker panels and burnt rubbers, vestiges of the glorious times.

Honorine Pardon lives and works in Brussels. Her practice with serious and ironic accents evokes in volume popular cultures that walk a tightrope.