Hubcaps (Family), 2022

Found hubcaps, found timber, microcontroller boards, stepper motors and driver boards, lidar sensors, MDF, nuts, bolts, screws, brackets, wiring, glue, computer code

Variable dimensions
 

This work was developed on Kaurna Country

Location: Liverpool Street Gallery

 

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Hubcaps turning, hubcaps lost, hubcaps broken, hubcaps found

Hubcaps abandoned, hubcaps rescued, hubcaps yearning, hubcaps sound

Locked away in his house with no phone

He’s building a robot from sticks and stones

 

Can inanimate objects be brought to life using simple robotics to evoke an emotional response in viewers? How do viewers respond when an inanimate object moves according to the viewer’s own movement? The hubcaps in this work were all found abandoned by the side of roads. Despite being born in a factory, just one mass-produced clone among thousands, even millions of others, each hubcap becomes unique like a member of a family – individually scratched, cracked and broken, its history of use and abuse writ plain to see. Here they are resurrected, put on display so that their true beauty can be appreciated by all.