SPOILER


In 2010 I spent considerable time driving around council curb side junk collection days hunting for black objects. This process was part of an artwork that explored an idea about a correlation between contemporary installation art and bower bird behaviour. It was also a homage to the narrational ability of BBC naturalist David Attenborough. Although the junk collections were all within a 50 km radius, junk type differed markedly with changes in demographics. In a sense, the junk represented a profile of the places it emanated from. One of the black objects collected was a ‘spoiler’.

'A spoiler is an automotive aerodynamic device whose intended design function is to 'spoil' unfavourable air movement across a body of a vehicle in motion, usually described as turbulence or drag. Spoilers are often fitted to race and high-performance sports cars, although they have become common on passenger vehicles as well. Some spoilers are added to cars primarily for styling purposes and have either little aerodynamic benefit or even make the aerodynamics worse' (wikipedia).

The spoiler object immediately caught my attention. It stood out anomalous amongst the detritus with its glossy reflective surface and unusual almost creepy symmetrical shape. Of course an art framing context further heightens qualities and connotations such an object can emit. Associations can be read into the temporality of its design such as the marketing of image and desire. Its actual function as a car part is as much a sign of power as it may or may not in fact physically enhance. Mounted on a white wall it appears other worldly, a synthetic moth, a prayer object from an unknown cult or is it an abstract sculptural artwork? From under the glossy black form a pinky red glow of the brake light emits and further produces connotations perhaps part erotic and part ominous, everything had stopped for the moment.