fabian oefner explodes views of classic sports cars

fabian oefner explodes views of classic sports cars
a 1961 iconic sleek, black jaguar e-type
all images courtesy of M.A.D. gallery

fabian oefner
MB&F M.A.D. gallery, geneva
now through may 2014

best known for capturing moments in time typically invisible to the human eye, swiss artist fabian oefner is presenting two new series of his trademark work at MB&F M.A.D. gallery. both projects, ‘disintegrating’ and ‘hatch’ are carefully and meticulously handcrafted images of classic sports cars, exploded, dissembled and dismantled in space.

with the aid of fine needles and pieces of string, the ‘disintegrating’ series comes to life through thousands of individual photographs. the intricate scale models of a mercedes-benz 300 slr uhlenhaut coupé with gullwing doors, a sleek, black jaguar e-type, and a sensual ferrari 330 p4 that oefner creates, replicate every inner detail hidden within the hood. carefully strung and placed floating in space, singular photos are taken of each part, then blended together in post-production to create one unified image. ‘what looks like a car falling apart is in fact a moment in time that has been created artificially by blending hundreds of individual images together. there is a unique pleasure about artificially building a moment…freezing a moment in time is stupefying’, oefner explains.

1967 ferrari 330 p4

a 1954 mercedes-benz 300 slr uhlenhaut coupé with gullwing doors
 

for ‘hatch’, oefner presents his translation of the birth of a car, reproducing the oviparity found in nature as a super-sleek automobile birthing from a shell. starting by making latex molds from the model car, oefner then filled them with a thin layer of gypsum to create the outer coating. the next step involved destruction — smashing the shell onto the car to create the illusion of the vehicle emerging out from it. the ferrari 250 gto becomes almost as a living, breathing organism through the energetic, dynamic photography series.

a scale model of a ferrari 250 gto breaking out of its shell

the ferrari crashes through the latex mold

the aftermath