21 Nov - Dec 15, 2013
Aaron Martin’s work brings attention to the blown-out and disregarded tyres we often see dotted along our highways and thoroughfares. Aaron has retrieved them, relocating them to his studio to become the subject of his drawings. These large format charcoal works are clearly recognisable as tyres but are at the same time oddly unfamiliar; the sudden thrust of the blowout causing the tyre to become inverted or coiled into a convoluted knot. These unusual shapes are presented formidably against the large negative space of the white paper. Furthering the examination, Aaron has also sourced videos of tyres being tested. His 2.34 mins of video shows a robotic arm spinning a tyre at maximum rotation, moving up, down and side-to-side, subjecting it to immense force. As one expects, the squealing tyre becomes a shredded mess in a matter of seconds – an intersection of function of failure. The shredded mess is also evident in a scattering of tyres on the gallery floor. Stacked in piles, they stand like monuments or totems to some dark industrial past. In Aaron’s work the circular motion inherent in the mechanical, and the manner in which it underpins society, is revealed.