Alex Harris
May 23, 1998, Jorge Alberto Roja’s 1951 Plymouth, View of Haban Vieja Street (calle Sol y Cuba) Facing North, 1998
Color print
Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College
Gift of the artist

The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum presents

Inside Cars—Surrounding Interiors

A place both personal and anonymous, private and public, hermetic and permeable, the interior of the car is the subject of the exhibition Inside Cars—Surrounding Interiors. The exhibition opens on Saturday, September 7 at the Weisman Art Museum and runs through Sunday, December 29.

Like the mind, the car interior is a control center of sorts, a center of psychic and social activity that frames a particular view of the world outside, occasionally offering the outsider glimpses within. Meaningful moments and substantial portions of our lives take place in cars. The experience of being inside a car has
not been the subject of an exhibition until now.

This exhibition features 26 works by 16 contemporary artists in photography, video, sculpture, painting, and mixed-media who explore the mutable nature of the car interior. Works by artists Andrew Bush, Nan Goldin, Peter Cain, and Alex Harris (photography); Sophie Calle, Gregory Shepherd, and Cate Snook (video); Dan Devine, Theophilus Nii Anum Sowah, Andrea Zittel (sculpture); Blake Rayne and James Rosenquist (painting), and, Lorna Simpson, Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, and Daniel Storto (mixed-media) are included. Some of the works have been created from the artist’s perspective of being inside the car, sharing space and experience with their subject; other artists act as voyeurs into this private but vulnerable interior.

Ed and Nancy Reddin Kienholz’s mixed-media assemblage work, Sawdy, uses the car door as a
vantage point and a barrier to violence occurring outside. Kienholz, the creator of the celebrated
mixed-media work Pedicord Apartments, and his wife continue to create work that comments on social ills.

Nan Goldin’s cibachrome photographs document the ups and downs of her circle of friends with unflinching attention and brutal candor. In these works, the car interior is revealed as a space for intimate dialogue between the artist and her subjects.

Lorna Simpson’s photograph is printed on felt making it hazy and difficult to decipher. The accompanying text, applied to felt, tells of the car and its one time occupants, giving the viewer a glimpse into this meditation on the psychological tensions inherent in the juxtaposition of private acts and public spaces.

Sophie Calle and Gregory Shepherd present an unglamorized version of romance in their video, Double Blind, which documents their trip across the U.S., complete with their wedding in a drive-through chapel.

The hand-built coffins of Ghanian sculptor Theophilus Nii Anum Sowah relate the association of the car with status and death. In Ghana, replicas of cars have become popular as coffins, in keeping with a recent tradition that celebrates the deceased by burying them in a cherished object.

Sculptor Andrea Zittel’s escape vehicles are trailers customized to their owner’s desires and
specifications. Installed in the homes of owners these works encapsulate the feeling of personal sanctuary found in the car.

Andrew Bush’s photographs pierce the protective shield drivers and passengers feel as they drive, deep in
reverie and unaware of being observed.

Inside Cars—Surrounding Interiors was organized by the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts and curated by Judith Hoss Fox.

The exhibition catalogue was produced by the semi-annual interdisciplinary arts journal
2wice\Visual\Cultural\Document. This journal, published by the 2wice Arts Foundation, is art directed and edited by J. Abbott Miller.

Contributors to the catalogue offer unique perspectives on our intimate connection to the automotive interior. The catalogue presents essays by Davis Museum and Cultural Center curators Judith H. Fox and Lucy Flint-Gohlke, rock and roll writer Greil Marcus, film historian Paul Arthur, automotive expert Phil Patton, essayist Tobi Tobias, art editor David Frankel, professor of visual studies Giuliana Bruno, editor/designer J. Abbott Miller, photographer Andrew Bush, cinematographer Adam Bartos, and writer and editor James Wolcott.

Inside Cars—Surrounding Interiors and its related programming are made possible by a generous grant from the American Express Minnesota Philanthropic Program.

Additional operating support is provided by the Chadwick Foundation; the Boss Foundation; the Dorsey and Whitney Foundation; the General Mills Foundation; the Art and Martha Kaemmer Fund of HRK Foundation; the R.C. Lilly Foundation; Target Stores, Marshall Field’s and Mervyn’s California with support from the Target Foundation; Wells Fargo Foundation Minnesota; Xcel Energy Foundation; Minnesota State Arts Board; the Colleagues of the Weisman Art Museum; and the University of Minnesota.

Opening Celebration:

Saturday, September 21, 2002
7:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. Exhibition preview, refreshments, entertainment by
Curtiss A., and a display of vintage American cars.
Tickets: $10/$5 for WAM members, students, and seniors.
For reservations, please call the Weisman events line at (612) 626-4747.
Address: Weisman Art Museum, 333 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455

This opening celebration will be held in conjunction with the Springsteen—Troubadour of the Highway opening.