Acrylic on canvas and grille from Ford Mercury 66. 66 x 600 x 200 cm Courtesy: Collection Frac Aquitaine, Burdeos

Material culture, pop art and counterculture come together in this work by Jim Shaw. A car that appears to be formed by the synthesis of two simple elements: the materiality of the front of a car (which is one of the motifs most frequently used by pop art) and the dreamlike flight of a painted canvas. A cross between matter and dream in which the automobile moves between reality and imagination, commercial culture and alternative culture. If the automobile has been shaped throughout the second half of the 20th century as an outstanding product of mass culture and a collective cultural reference, Jim Shaw’s response is to place on it a crossplay of aesthetic and cultural references capable of revealing and awakening our capacity for individual appropriation.