Chris Car

My inspiration comes from two distinct sources: mass-produced consumer products and software development.

I am selecting mass-produced consumer items, assembling them into patterns and combining these patterns to give form to a sculpture. This repetitive process refers to software programming: combining algorithms, functions and software patterns into software programs. When working on sculptures, I call my work process “visual programming”.

The relationship between software programs and consumer products is not far fetched: most of these items are so-called Blobjects: colorful, plastic-based, emotionally engaging consumer products designed on a computer by using specialized design software. The iPod is the most prominent example of a popular Blobject (among other products at Ikea, H&M, etc.). These products are sold globally and define a global culture.

Although my sculptures are made from these products, they rather represent counter-products with non-linear and almost random shapes, fragile and visually overloaded with details.

Another aspect of my sculptural work is the visualization of the changes in society: from the industrial society to the post-industrial information society. From linear assembly lines at Ford - to “multi-tasking” office jobs at Google. Currently we find ourselves in a so-called transformation society which makes life seem to be very complex and demanding, due to the rapid changes happening within just a few years. I try to express this feeling of the current era through “visual complexity” in my work.

Summary: I try to create compressed cultural objects.