Steve Carr, In Bloom (Waiheke), 2024
Bronze. Courtesy Station, Melbourne and Sydney, and Michael Lett, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland.
At first glance, In Bloom may look like a casual arrangement of car tyres. However, its petrolhead nonchalance is an illusion. The tyres are actually cast in bronze, and proudly feature logos of the artist’s name. Craft masquerades as readymade! Carr has gone to great trouble, while appearing to have gone to none at all. To date, he has shown In Bloom at Auckland’s Britomart, Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery, Christchurch Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and Michael Lett, here in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, in Sydney. He usually treats the tyres as a vase, working with gardeners and botanists to create bespoke plantings within them. But, here, In Bloom is shown for the first time in ‘nature’, less framing it than being framed by it.
