Lot 914: TETSUYA NAKAMURA

TETSUYA NAKAMURA
(Born in 1968)
Monaco Star
polyurethane paint on FRP sculpture
70 x 180 x 450 cm. (27 1/2 x 70 3/4 x 177 1/4 in.)
Executed in 2004

The obsession towards breaking records has often advanced science, produced various sports and supported the progress of civilization. Passion towards speed is especially irresistible, and particularly in motor sports, latest technology has been implemented continuously showing incredible developments. Race cars are divided into various styles according to category, characteristic of race, type of race, revealing their beautiful forms. Styles born from the load of regulation also offer me inspiration for sculpture production. For myself living in the 21st Century accepting such latest information and importing it in my works is important to give a sense of reality to my works. It is also indispensable to improve my works.
- Tetsuya Nakamura

The element of speed, racing and cars thrills many people, but to take it to the extent where even household objects are treated as a machine of drag repelling curves is unique and exhilarating in itself. Although Nakamura is trained in traditional Japanese lacquer painting, his application of luminescent saturated colours and patterns to car shaped forms is reminiscent of 1930s American road racing machines. Monaco Star (Lot 914) is a manifestation of a conceptual car, one that is so aerodynamic that the features we take for granted on cars such as wheels is wholly irrelevant. Its winged and lightly curled front is analogous to a shark thus channeling a shark's agility, stealth and sleek skin.

Premium Unit Bath (Lot 915), whose lava like melded red and whites which roll over the rounded edges of the bathtub, we can only imagine the contradictory sensations one would feel as they sat inside. Traditionally viewed as a place of relaxation and unwinding, the sleek exterior of the bathtub creates the illusion that one is traveling through a 1960s trip. Even resembling the time warped movement of slow wavering flames, the reds and oranges roll into one with the white 'smoke'. Similarly visually deceptive is Solid Paint Custom/WEDGE (Lot 916) whose organic form we could associate with a hunter's souvenir or antlers. The transformation of these three inanimate objects into aerodynamic forms is suggestive of the steadfast high tech revolution into the future. We, as a society are consumed with the idea of traveling and accomplishing things at unfathomable speed; an idea reinforced by Nakamura's use of polyurethane paint, made to endure weathering, forever sleek and polished. The link between fine art and technological advances runs is unbreakable in this era and the creation of Nakamura's works; they indeed facilitate the surreal conceptions and possible materializations of a supersonic future.