Guancho, 2005
C-print 97 x 145 cm
Courtesy: Galería Rafael Ortiz, Seville
Logotypes and symbols used as identifiers of specific car brands pervade our lives and are enormously popular. Somehow, these signs underpin ideas of uniqueness or differentiation within the competitive mass production of cars. This is generally a corporate differentiation or identification, signifying the brand’s presence. However, subverting or replacing such elements is, obviously, part of the dynamics of customization or tuning. Manolo Bautista does exactly this in his work Guancho, tuning a vehicle in a bright, aggressive style with a symbol worthy of Crocodile Dundee. Undercut with biting wit, the process of decontextualisation of symbols carried out in this image proposes a reflection on the need for affirmation, as well as on other issues such as luxury, differentiation or individual affirmation within consumer society.
