In This Exhibition, NASCAR Meets Formalist Sculpture

At first, you might not think that formalist sculpture and NASCAR share much in common. But consider the smooth lines of the vehicles, the track, and those iconic zigzagged racing stripes, and the similarities emerge. Melbourne-based artist Basil Papoutsidis has a passion for both automotives and abstraction, and his new show Darlington Stripe merges fast cars and formalism together rather neatly. "I’ve always been into automotive culture since I was young,” he tells The Creators Project. “It kind of stemmed from my old man. We’d watch Steve McQueen films and my dad would point out the Ford Mustangs and Dodge Chargers, and all the iconic muscle cars of 1960s and 1970s cinema.”

The design of muscle cars in films like Vanishing Point and the original Italian Job have influenced the artist since he was a child. A fascination with NASCAR itself emerged when Papoutsidis came across an article in an car magazine and “became was interested in the aggression and tactics of it, and the language that surrounds it.”

In Darlington Stripe, he combines a love of cars with a careful attention to construction, and his bold minimalist sculptures—constructed of PVC and enamel—are influenced by the works of Tony Smith, Anthony Caro and Frank Stella. Evoking exhaust pipes and dented rear bumpers, their intricately balanced design is as meticulous as those of the vehicles they reference. “The concept of subject as object is an idea that really resonates with me,” he says. “I kind of like the idea that my works are functionless objects that exists for what they are and what they are made from. There is also a hierarchical system that I always put into place when making work, where I always need to identify a dominant, subdominant and subordinate element in the work for it to be complete.”

Papoutsidis’ show derives its name from the prominent paint scratches that NASCAR drivers on the Darlington Raceway in South Carolina accidentally emboss their vehicles with when they hit the wall. Those scratches are nicknamed “Darlington stripes”, and they’re actually somewhat of a badge of honour for racers. “I thought that play on words was interesting,” Papoutsidis says. “The idea of wearing your wounds as something to be proud of."

You can see Darlington Stripe at Anna Pappas Gallery Melbourne, from September 2 until October 1, 2016. You can find out more about Basil Papoutsidis and see more of his work here.  Related:

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