[/img]"I do to cars what the fairy Godmother did to Cinderella before she went to the ball, only none of my vehicles will turn ugly again by midnight"
Leepu Awlia
Cars are commonly appreciated as objects of design but to many people they are also objects of desire. This exhibition celebrates the design and desirability of cars, but also questions our responsibility for the environment.
If you have you seen Leepu Awlia banging and hammering in the window of Rich Mix over the past couple of months now is the time to see what all that elbow grease and hard work has been for. If you haven’t you will be able to see a short film that has recorded the transformation of an old banger to a piece of beauty as part of CAR: Objects of Desire and Design - Rich Mix’s first exhibition.
The centrepiece of CAR is the work of Leepu Awlia, our first artist in residence. We first heard about Leepu from Muhammad Ahmedullah a photographer who has been documenting contemporary Dhaka. In his images we saw Leepu at work. Not only an extraordinary recycler, but a creator that works in a unique collaborative way that inspired us. Thus we invited Leepu to be our first artist in residence.
Leepu and his assistants arrived from Bangladesh at the end of May and in less than two months created the RMX-1, in an environment created by young men from Youth Action UK in Shadwell. Leepu and his team have performed this spectacular transformation on a battered Ford Capri working by hand, hammering and banging pieces of sheet metal to transform it to its present remarkable state.
You can see RMX-1, experience Leepu’s workshop and processes, explore relevant issues on a number of interactive screens and enjoy our programme of classic car films.
We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the
making of this exhibition:
The RMX-1 Car Team
From Dhaka
Lead Artist: Leepu Awlia
Supervisor and Mechanic: Dipu Awlia
Mechanics: Abdul Goni, Abdul Karim
Supported by: Dipa, Rokhsana & Farzana Awlia
From London
Trainee Mechanics: Raju Hussein, Monshor Miah
Mechanics: Fahad Qureshi, Fahim Qureshi, Zumon Jaigirdar, Abul Hussein, Khalil Alkarssifi, Saboor Wahid from JT Motors
Car Exhibition Team
Producer: Remi Vaughan-Richards from StormCity Films and RVR Productions
Associate Producer: Namdi Eneli
DV Director: Nicolas Haque
Design Team: Rich Mix, Abiogenesis and Edwin Wright
‘Urban Car Culture’ by Katrin Locke
‘ Car Culture’ by Abigail Durrant and Edward Stanton from Okeanos
‘ Live to Create’ by De-Leon and Ball
‘Leepu’ by Damian De-Leon
Special thanks to:
Muhammad Ahmedullah
Alim and Sadique from Unique Auto Services, Hainault
Ali’s Garage, Redchurch Street
Moin Hasan Dhrubo
‘ Piplu’ at Adcomm
Youth Action UK
Helal Miah from the Consortium of Bengali Associations
Over 70 people from the local area have been involved in making this exhibition. Including 36 young people, 2 from Shoreditch Community College with whom Leepu has shared his skills. The others formed the graffiti project team and have been involved in a short documentary film project.
RMX-1 Documentary Film Project – shown as a short in our cinemas before Disney/Pixar’s CARS
Young participants trained by: Rachel Wang and Mark Currie of Chocolate Films
Participants
Nita Khan
Thanjima Hussain
Ayesha Hussain
Eddie Frost
Tina Caballero
Ai Nakashima
Ebony Francis
Juvoyr Foyz
Soundtrack by: young participants from Swanlea school, Tower Hamlets trained by:
Dr. Das and Karen O’Brien of Asian Dub Foundation Education with thanks to: Hannah Fox.
Joseph Williams, aka Viper
Elijah Riley, aka Reckz
Afzal Miah, aka Lefty
Peter James-Hamilton, aka Ruthless Boi
Structure- Ford Capri
Year- 1982
Roof- Vauxhall Calibra, 1935
Exterior materials- sheet metal, paint, glass, perspex
Interior materials- Leather seats & panel, DVD player, etc.
from-: http://www.richmix.org.uk/exhibitions_car.htm
