Kinetic Expressions
2025 | ART & DESIGN, MARK MAKING
Kinetic Expressions explores the crossroads where kinetic energy, mark-making techniques, Chinese calligraphy, and fun meet through the use of toy vehicles as unusual tools to create art though a consistent visual language. Artists have previously employed similar techniques using tires to create prints, such as Robert Rauschenberg's "Automobile Tire Print" (1953) which illustrated the city streets through inked automobile tire marks over long sheets of paper, and Thomas Yang’s “Tyre Tracks Series” which portrays famous landmarks created using inked bicycle tires to create shapes and textures. While such projects have been done in the past, this project introduces a unique method by using toy cars on designed terrain to create generative marks which illustrate the spontaneous movement of the cars, the effect of the terrain on the cars’ movement, and translating the fun process into visual representations. Each toy car is released onto the track and used in a way which it was designed to be played with, and marks are imprinted on the calligraphy paper using acrylic paint or ink. The project builds on Chinese calligraphy’s emphasis on rhythm and gestures, while transferring the agency from the human hand to mechanical objects to control the ‘brush’.
This fashions an interesting conversation between intentional design elements such as the constructed track and unpredictable outcomes as the cars react to the track. This experimental process reveals interesting potential in the physical aspects of motion and the expression of mark making. The elongated dimensions of the canvas are twofold in purpose, functioning both as a passive canvas with interesting dimensions and a dynamic document that records the vehicles’ movements, from acceleration and deceleration, to jumps and directional changes as they manoeuvre the inclines, declines and landscape of the created terrain. The terrains include half pipes and quarter pipes (similar to skateboarding), valleys, ramps, jumps and smooth terrains.
What seems like a simple exploration of a toy car evolves into a deeper exploration of how even controlled environments can produce randomized and uncontrolled aesthetic outcomes. This project forms a bridge between mechanical production with artistic expression in the simplest of ways. It also translates the intangible, such as kinetic energy, rhythm, and the joyful experience, into a visual expression found in works which mirror the organic qualities found in Chinese calligraphy.
01. HALF PIPE, HOT WHEELS
02. HALF PIPE HOT WHEELS, PAINT VARIATION
03. HALF PIPE HOT WHEELS, WET
04. DROP JUMP, VARYING CARS
05. RAMP, VARYING CARS
06. SPINNING ON FLAT GROUND, VARYING CARS
07. QUARTER PIPE, VARYING CARS