How to suspend belief and a Vauxhall Corsa, but only for a few more days.

‘Alex Chinneck for Vauxhall Motors: Pick yourself up and pull yourself together.’

British artist Alex Chinneck today revealed his latest illusory artwork in collaboration with Vauxhall Motors.  Following 2014’s ‘floating building’ in Covent Garden,‘Pick yourself up and pull yourself together’ sees the artist suspend a new Vauxhall Corsa, 15 feet in the air at London’s Southbank Centre.

The collaboration with Vauxhall Motors turns a parking space on its head, peeling back 15 metres of arching tarmac to turn a one tonne car upside-down as the vehicle grips the curling road with no visible support.

Vauxhall Motors commissioned Chinneck to create a piece inspired by the new Corsa, which was launched earlier this year with a campaign based on an A-Z of British motoring. The gravity defying feat can be found in Southbank Centre Car Park, beside The London Eye, until Wednesday 25th February 2015.

Speaking on the artwork, Alex Chinneck said, “I see sculpture as the physical reinterpretation of the material world around us and so by introducing fictional narratives into familiar scenarios, I try to make everyday situations as extraordinary as they can be. I choose to do this through illusions because I think there is something both optimistic and captivating about defying the realms of possibility.

“With an effortlessly curling road I hoped to transcend the material nature of tarmac and stone, giving these typically inflexible materials an apparent fluidity. Vauxhall Motors allowed me a great amount of creative freedom and this collaboration offered my studioan exciting platform to explore new areas of engineering and fabrication.”

After making Covent Garden hover with 2014’s ‘Take My Lightning, But Don’t Steal my Thunder’and ‘A Pound of Flesh for 50p’ where a house in Southwark gradually melted to the ground, Alex wanted to create a public installation of significant sculptural and theatrical impact, which complimented the new Corsa’s design.

Commenting on the commission, Mark Adams, Head of Design at Vauxhall Motors said: “The installation certainly celebrates the new Corsa as a ball of energy – a small car with a big heart.  Alex Chinneck’s work is astounding, he’s an amazing British sculptor who creates illusionary structures with the most in-depth engineering and design.  Above all, the astonishing rip curl embodies the fun people have driving the much-loved Vauxhall Corsa.”   

As well as Alex himself, the sculpture has been produced by a team of structural engineers, steel benders, scenic artists, metal workers, carpenters, tarmac layers and road painters, creating an object that was designed tooccupy the absolute maximum UK road-legal dimensions so it can be installed overnight.

“Simple in concept yet structurally, technically and logistically complex, this project looks to deliver an experience that can be appreciated by different people for different reasons. While I am most excited by the hidden engineering and complex manipulation of concealed steel, others will simply enjoy the accessible theatricality of the illusion at play,” said Alex Chinneck.

Vauxhall Motors has worked with documentary director Chris Tubbs to create both a behind-the-scenes film, offering insights into how the project developed and a time-lapse of the piece’s installation. To view both visit www.vauxhall.co.uk/alexchinneck.

‘Alex Chinneck for Vauxhall Motors: Pick yourself up and pull yourself together’ is currently running from Thursday 19^th February until Wednesday 25^th February at the Southbank Centre Car Park.