ON THE ROAD, 2018
Exhibited at the Southward Car Museum in 2018, On the Road was created as an homage to Jack Kerouac and the mythology of the open road. Through a series of distinctive car paintings, Heimler & Proc portray celebrated New Zealand figures from the arts alongside a diverse cast of characters.
Just as the automobile connected distant cities and regions across the United States, in New Zealand it became a vehicle for linking towns and communities, enabling movement, exchange and shared experience across the country.
In several works, recognisable New Zealand landscapes — open roads, rolling hills, coastal light and distinctive terrain — extend beyond the vehicle, creating a visual dialogue between the passengers, the automobile and the land through which they travel. The car thus becomes more than a means of transportation: it operates as a cultural and pictorial device, bringing together people, place, memory and imagination.
Cinematic in character and rich in narrative possibility, On the Road invites viewers to encounter the automobile simultaneously as an object of design, a setting for portraiture and a symbol of freedom and journey.
Island Sound (60 x 50 cm)
Tamara Lempicka’s painting Tamara in a Green Bugatti (1929) is one of her most famous paintings and also her auto-portrait as a driver. "This showed her at the wheel of a Bugatti racing car wearing a leather helmet and gloves and wrapped in a grey scarf, a portrait of cold beauty, independence, wealth, and inaccessibility" (Foxhall 1987). We recognised the historical connection between this painting and our idea for the series ‘On the Road’. It inspired us to work on Island Sound, which became the first of our 'On the Road' series. We used this painting’s construction and developed a New Zealand context. We inserted a stylish woman, her pet dog next to her and Jane Campion’s landscape. The dog has an ear lifted up as if it is hearing something coming from the sea or from the island. The dog works as a link between the landscape and the woman.
Manfeild (153 x 102 cm)
A direct inspiration for the exhibition, the cult book of writer Jack Kerouac, representative of so-called Beat Generation. The picture goes even further by suggesting New Zealand writer Katharine Mansfield in a scenario of female empowerment, with a message of tolerance and transformation that is repeated in the painting entitled Trans.
Carved Surf (169 x 100 cm)
Through a surfboard carved with Maori motifs, Heimler & Proc pay tribute to one of the most representative works of the artist Michael Parekowhai. The complelling painting fosters a sense conversation between the automobiles and their distinguished occupants, human and birds included.
Trans (153 x 102 cm)
In the exhibition ‘On the Road’, the painting Trans is the guardian of change, of evolution. The characters in the canvas celebrate their own individuality while decidedly sharing their experiences and embarking on a journey through the anchoritic New Zealand. Thus, each subject performs an exercise of introspective exploration, discovering and accepting itself, as it travels through the indomitable Kapiti Coast, aboard a vehicle that becomes synonymous with renewal in this world where modernity demands diversity, inclusion and tolerance. Trans is therefore an ode to the permanent transformation of everything that makes us human.
Rita (127 x 88 cm)
In a colorful interplay of professional camaraderie, the renowned painter Rita Angus accompanies metaphorically a group of young people in the painting that bears her name. In this manner, artistic expressions are honored and the search for a personal and unrepeatable identity is furthered.
New Era (127 x 88 cm)
The works discussed above lead us to the painting entitled New Era, a balanced composition where the artist Ralph Hotere shelters a new generation that looks to the future with energy. Behind him, Mount Taranaki emerges, synonymous of strength and Maori oral tradition.
Seatoun (127 x 88 cm)
In the work entitled Seatoun, the famous painter Michael Smither ventures deeply into New Zealand territory. He sits at the wheel of a collectable vehicle, surrounded by a very local landscape and allusions to the rural and urban worlds that coincide in Aotearoa.
Jaguar's Hunt (153 x 102 cm)
The iconic and artistic references continue in the rest of the works of ‘On the Road’, including the avant-garde New Zealand poet Sam Hunt, who is seen driving a classic vehicle. He offers a friendly greeting to a fellow driver who responds with indifference. The interaction is symbolic of the encounters and disagreements between the different sectors of modern societies.
Shooting Star (153 x 102 cm)
‘On the Road’ concludes with a message for all of us, illustrated in the painting of the two lovers who look out from their vehicle at a car with dark windows and incognito occupants. The scene hints at an unknown forthcoming, but one that is full of possibilities. On this road through New Zealand that Heimler and Proc have invited us to travel, to enjoy and to admire, we will be the architects of our own our conversations, our own stories.
EXHIBITION BOOKLET
Take a closer look
Explore the complete series in the accompanying exhibition booklet.
$15 NZD