IcarusCar


Evann Siebens & Keith H. Doyle


January 9 - February 14, 2009



IcarusCar

a media installation by
Evann Siebens & Keith H. Doyle

Few images symbolize the limitless potential inherent in the popular North American conception of an ever-optimistic future like the flying car. The optimism of extending Henry Ford’s invention to the sky comes from an earlier time; gridlock quickly dispels the myth that the automobile alone makes it possible to truly come and go as we wish.

The Taylor aerocar, designed and built by Moulton Taylor in 1949 is the most successful “flying car” design to date (investors themselves actually prefer the term “roadable aircraft”). The prototype Aerocar had folding wings that allowed the road vehicle to be converted into flight mode in about five minutes by one person; while driving, the wings and tall unit were towed behind the vehicle. Though six examples were built, the Aerocar never entered production.

Drawing inspiration from the true story of Taylor’s Aerocar 1 and the classical myth of Icarus, IcarusCar is a three channel video installation created with an abstract narrative and sculptural artifacts from the film. Using a full-sized 1969 MGB GT and a scale model of the same, the media is set in the rural southern Alberta winter landscape, where an old crumbling barn and long desolate roads provide both subject and setting. Nostalgia for another time in history, the relationship between the automobile, the Canadian prairie landscape and the inventor/artist are all part of the dream: to push beyond gravity and use human ingenuity to create something new; to fly.

Evann Siebens is a media artist whose work has been shown at the Georges Pompidou Centre, MOMA, the Hammer Museum, Lincoln Center and on networks such as PBS. A former dancer, she danced with the National Ballet of Canada and the Bonn Ballet before receiving her film education at New York University. Originally from Calgary, she lived for 15 years in New York City and is now based in Vancouver.

Keith H. Doyle is a sculptor and designer based in Vancouver. He is a founding partner of Intelligent Forms Design Inc., a Vancouver based design firm, and formerly taught at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Trained as a sculptor, he has assisted in the building of large scale public sculpture, held one person exhibitions of his work and attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art, earning a MFA in sculpture in 2000.

IcarusCar was originally created at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 2007 during a Banff New Media Institute residency.