Fascinated by cars, speed, and the materialism pervading our daily lives, Belgian artist Rebecca Quix is continuously evolving with each phase of her artistry. She describes her artistic practice as a dynamic relationship between herself, the work, and possibly any cultural-historical forces that might cross her path. Speaking about her relationship to art, Quix comments, “It’s a drive. A drive without taking the Ausfahrt. Or maybe taking many.”

Highway, freeway

On one such ride, Quix went to New York City to continue studying art, picking up where she’d left off in Brussels. The city’s bustling influx of visual stimuli fueled her creative impulses with a frenetic energy unlike any she had previously experienced. The sudden concentration of all the hallmarks of American consumer culture—the fast-paced lifestyle, rugged individualism, excessive commercialism, and, of course, big cars—generated a boundless terrain, ripe for exploration. New York also happens to be the hub of an artistic legacy still very much alive, inspiring Quix to critically examine how representational images are produced, distributed, and consumed.

Throughout her work, Quix attempts to subvert traditional ways of relating to contemporary material culture. Magazine ads, household appliances, food packaging, and car ventilation grilles are among the disparate items appropriated and re-contextualized to elicit new modes of association. As Quix succinctly puts it, “The highway of associations is one of my favorite highways.” Her art contemplates the fetishization of these images in commercial media—the notion of a subject designed for perpetual allure. She seems to be probing what these objects of desire reveal about our present moment.

Deconstructing contemporary life with her assemblages, Quix captures the atmosphere of the real through unconventional manipulations and visual representations. She seeks to defamiliarize the familiar, with a particular focus on illuminating everyday materials. Dismantled equipment, consumer goods, product photography, and text are playfully juxtaposed to hinder spectators from passively identifying with the composite image. In doing so, a quasi-Brechtian “distancing effect” spurs active engagement with the construction. This potentially stimulates the dialectical exchange of ideas, prompting contemporary viewers to self-reflect, reassess, and further modernize.

Speed and digestion

Always stretching the boundaries of representation, Quix nonetheless maintains a steadfast loyalty to her lifelong muse—cars. A symbol of personal freedom and independence, the car possesses a liminal quality at the shifting, overlapping edges between projected and personal desire. In her own desire to capture this motif of speed and digestion, to create a rhythm in accordance with that of the contemporary city, Quix reflects upon the nature of this mechanical object: a product of modernity.

written by Antonia Glaser

Keep up with the latest from Rebecca Quix through her instagram and website. 

PK & Friends / Open Studio / BYOBuffet

Fri 4 Nov
7-10

talk by curators, Claudia Caletti and Mary Osaretin Omoregie

PILOTENKUECHE
Franz-Flemming-Str 9
04179 Leipzig

Pleasure Seed

Sat 17 Dec 7-10PM
ARS AVANTI
Alte Handelsschule
Giesserstr 75
04229 Leipzig