![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/B-AMCEWEN-14-0014.jpg\")
Adam McEwen, “Franklin\u201c, 2014. Inkjet print on cellulose sponge. 551.2 x 80.6 cm.Courtesy Capitain Petzel, Berlin. Copyright the artist. Photo: Tom Powel<\/p>\n Adam McEwen, “Franklin\u201c, 2014. Inkjet print on cellulose sponge. 551.2 x 80.6 cm.Courtesy Capitain Petzel, Berlin. Copyright the artist. Photo: Tom Powel<\/p>\n
ATMs, made of graphite. Text messages, silk screened in ink. And now, limousines, portrayed in sponge. Adam McEwen has always been a fan of working in unusual materials. The artist is best known for writing obituaries for celebrities who are still alive, but throughout all of his work, he seeks that elusive moment of incomprehension in the familiar.<\/p>\n
In his current show at Capitain Petzel, the British artist has created homages to that ubiquitous American sight, the limousine, each of which is printed in inkjet, onto sponge. Laid vertically, the shapes become defamiliarised, yet still nod to the phallic promise of a fantasy night created by the gargantuan cars. Alongside these key works, the artist also shows the installation “Assembly” (made from disassembled elevator steps) and “Escape from New York” ( four films of the inside of the tunnels that lead out of New York, inspired by the John Carpenter film of the same name).\u00a0Sleek\u00a0<\/em>spoke to McEwen about finding art in moments of the unfamiliar, and what limousines have in common with dildos.<\/p>\n What led to your creating the photos of limousines?<\/b><\/p>\n I had been thinking about limousines for a few years. They hooked into my head as being insane and irrational. When you stop and think about it, there\u2019s a 25-foot white object trying to get around the street corner. You\u2019re used to it, but if you step back, it\u2019s insane!<\/p>\n There\u2019s a strange accumulation of emotional reasons for it. When you see a stretch limo, it conjures up all these ideas of fantasy, sex, drugs and rock and roll. It\u2019s about desire. You want to be excited.\u00a0It’s about transforming your life, inverting the situation. It offers this promise, which is a bit like an art work in a way: the irrational object.<\/p>\n I also like that all you need to indicate a limo is a white rectangle, with a black rectangle inside and maybe some little lines, then you would instantly see \u201cstretch limo\u201d. So, I realised that you could defamiliarise them like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n Why did you choose to print these limousine photographs onto sponge?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I thought that the sponge might be a good way of tripping the viewer up. I like it when you are forced into a moment when you\u2019re not sure how something works. It\u2019s the same with the graphite works I made. You look at it and think \u201cWhat is that?\u201d. But every five year old kid has used an HB pencil, and knows that colour \u2013 it\u2019s not black, it\u2019s not silver, it\u2019s pencil. I\u2019d never seen a sculpture made of this, which makes it feel unfamiliar, but it isn\u2019t.\u00a0The aim is to make this sliver or doorway that you can step through.<\/p>\n It\u2019s funny that the sponge doesn\u2019t absorb the colour much, even though that\u2019s what it\u2019s known for.<\/b><\/p>\n It printed much better than I thought it would. And because it\u2019s inkjet and sprays ink, it sprays into the holes which gives it this 3d aspect \u2013 if you move your head, it changes, because you\u2019re looking into a hole.<\/p>\n The names of the works in the series are from the drivers of the limousines (“Big Mike”, “Fernando”, “Esteban”) . These also sound like pornstar names, or dildos! There seems to be a link there between the phallic promise of limousines and the drivers you named them after.<\/b><\/p>\n That\u2019s so true and hilarious! I remember Big Mike, he was really proud of his big long limo! It\u2019s so overt and stupid, that you want to say \u201cReally? You think you\u2019re going to impress people by being 25 foot long?\u201d And basically, the answer is yes: it works, which is very \u201cporn\u201d.<\/p>\n It was a big deal to realise that the limos should be titled by the drivers, because it\u2019s the driver I\u2019m interacting with. They make the whole thing happen. Yes, someone\u2019s offering a limo as a fantasy, but meanwhile there\u2019s Big Mike driving up front, and he’s working.<\/p>\n The films of the tunnels in “Escape From New York” are very bound up with the city of New York, where you live. Could you have made this work about New York if you weren\u2019t originally an outsider?<\/b><\/p>\n The thing is that most Americans are outsiders in New York \u2013 if you come from Wisconsin, it\u2019s such a different place.<\/p>\n There\u2019s something very New York about those films. After 9\/11 and watching the towers go down, there was this period of a couple of months where you were very aware that you were on an island and you maybe wouldn\u2019t be able to get off. That\u2019s why you can\u2019t get out of the tunnels. [The films loop back to the start once the camera reaches the end of the tunnel]<\/p>\n \u00a0I am an outsider, but I had that idea for a tunnel film when I was 27 in London, I remember driving in my old car alone at 3am through a tunnel, and thought: there\u2019s something about this that is interesting. It just stuck in my head. I find this happens a lot. The idea slowly cooks inside you.\u00a0<\/p>\n It seemed to fit that I was showing these very phallic objects [the limousine series] and then tunnels. I don\u2019t know what that is \u2013 I\u2019m just foregrounding this stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n You filmed it on an iphone, right?<\/b><\/p>\n Yes, I did. Why would I use a proper film camera? I was using something available.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a good expression that Sarah Lucas uses: if it\u2019s good enough, it\u2019s perfect.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/AMCEWEN-Installation-view_8.jpg\")
Installation view: Adam McEwen, “Escape from New York\u201c, 2014. 4-Channel Video Projection, Varying Lengths. Courtesy Capitain Petzel, Berlin. Copyright the artist. Photo: Jens Ziehe<\/p>\n