Ford Cosworth
DFV, 2000
Chrome-plated bronze, concrete base
engine: 50 x 65 x 60 cm
base: 50 x 79 x 70 cm
© Sylvie Fleury
The works of the Swiss artist Sylvie Fleury (*1961 Geneva,
CH) draw their inspiration from the world of fashion, glamour and modern
consumerism. Fleury uses her creations to depict the stereotypical luxury of
consumer society while giving an ironic twist to gender clichés at the same
time. Not without critique, she addresses the material surface of the subjects
in order to fundamentally change their appearance through a process of product
modification and realign personal expectations. Many of her pieces consist of
technical objects or status symbols like machines, cars and rockets which
Fleury overlays with materials or colours connoting feminine characteristics.
In this way, the sculpture Ford Cosworth DFV turns an eight-cylinder engine from
the British manufacturer Cosworth into a highly polished, chrome-plated object,
presented as a ready-made. Fleury sets a female-inspired object world against a
male-dominated art scene, thus creating a jarring mix of apparent
contradictions.
