Douglas Coupland Revives a Lost Automotive Art with His Psychedelic Car Hoods
For fans of art, vintage muscle cars and MTV’s Pimp My Ride, there’s a new exhibition just for you. Douglas Coupland, one of Canada’s foremost visual artists, is back with Fordite: Neominerology in the Anthropocene, his new exhibition at Daniel Faria Gallery in Toronto. Fordite is a material derived from layers of old automotive paint that have been cut and polished. Through a painstaking painting process, Coupland mimics the look and feel of magnified fordite on metal and fiberglass hoods from 1965-1975 muscle cars, revealing a wildly colourful, trippy motif.
The trained eye can identify the year and model of a car based on a fordite nugget, particularly from the early 1970s, when cars’ paint palettes were at their most vibrant (and had names to match, like ‘Vitamin C’ and ‘Purple People Eater’). Coupland uses his fordite-style veneer to get us thinking about notions of beauty, utility and our environmental impact. But one thing’s for sure: these psychedelic hoods will have a lingering effect.
Douglas Coupland’s exhibition Fordite: Neominerology in the Anthropocene is on until March 14 at Daniel Faria Gallery. Contact gallery for prices and more information.
