Sarah Collard | Vehicular Traffic: what is your vehicle

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Sarah Collard, "Mustang Sally"

Courtesy of the Gallery.

Her exhibition features 10 wooden shaped boards, cut from a 4’ x 8’ sheet of wood into the silhouette of a Ford vehicle, representing a decade in its 100 year history in Canada.  Her reason for highlighting the Ford Motor Company is to honour their significant contribution to shaping Canadian cultural identity and to honour her father, a long-standing Ford employee.

To create a body of work that celebrates the 100 year history of the Ford Motor Company in Canada and to illustrate Canadian social behaviour.  Originally this series was created to educate immigrants coming to Canada in a transitional space set in an airport. It was meant to stimulate thought around how one gets their needs met.  How do you deal with stress?  Often many of us have coping mechanisms to deal with pain, some positive, some negative.  The question “What is your vehicle?” asks us about our physical choice in cars but it also asks “What is your vehicle for overcoming life’s circumstances?”, (a metaphysical question).  Vehicles can be mechanized structures causing traffic accidents, congestion or simply order.  They can be arranged in sequence, driven cautiously and used as a means of transportation.   Unfortunately, they can also be used carelessly and cause destruction.  Many car accidents could have been avoided with proper maintenance and driving habits.  Often in our lives it is the same way.  We sometimes drive recklessly and ruin the very ones we love.  However, when we make healthy choices, our speedometer is happy and we have more success.

The solution is a series of 10 wooden shaped boards, each cut from a 4’ x 8’ sheet of wood, into the silhouette of a Ford vehicle, representing a decade in its 100 year history in Canada.  The reason for highlighting the Ford Motor Company is to honour their significant contribution to shaping Canadian cultural identity and to honour my father, a long-standing Ford employee.  With its truck plant being located in Oakville, Ontario it is fitting for the cars to be Ford replicas.  Each car would be painted with imagery resembling the diversity of our social behaviour but not necessarily relate directly to its surrounding shape.  By juxtaposing contrasting images on top of the vehicles, the viewer is forced to draw their own conclusions.