Richard Jackson: Mr. CAB Driver

American painter Richard Jackson has some very strange methods. After making an aeroplane full of paint crash into a wall at S.M.A.K. in Ghent earlier this year, he has now randomly arranged six Fiat 500s in the middle of CAB Art Center. They still smell new, but they are covered in paint. The cars are dented and bumped. Some of the headlights and windows have been smashed. The floor of CAB is also covered with paint. American artist Richard Jackson has been here, that much is certain.

Jackson is famous – and infamous – for his spectacular painting-installations. They require hectolitres of paint. For his exhibition at S.M.A.K., he displayed an old Ford turned on its side. But its wheels were still turning, splashing paint around the room. In Brussels, he has converted a car wash into a machine of destruction. “It even had things that shoot wax on the car. We inject paint instead of wax. I changed the brushes on top into big steel drums with spikes,” the 75- year-old artist explains, as always, wearing a baseball cap. At the exhibition opening, which drew massive public interest, the cars were destroyed, making deafening industrial noise. It was a première, since the artist never usually shows the actual process of his performances, but only the results. “I have done that before, however. But it never really makes sense to have people around anyway. [Laughs] On the other hand, it is not as big a deal as people sometimes think. That is the problem! We are smashing up these cars. I think it is more interesting when the people don’t see it and have to use their imagination. But I might be wrong.”

The artist was a little nervous because it was the first time that he tried the “car wash”: “We did a trial run. I made a wooden car to see what would happen. We discovered that a few things needed to be modified, so we made the modifications but didn’t try it out again. Until now.” Do the cars still work? “We took out all the gas and oil. I don’t think they will still function. They are in bad shape, that’s for sure!” The results are somewhere on the crossroad between painting and sculpture. But does he actually consider himself a painter or not? “Yes, sure! I try to extend painting. I make it more interesting for me to do. And maybe also for the people to look at. I have always tried to force people to change their minds about what painting could be. In this case, the collectors buy a car and I turn it into a destroyed object that I give back afterwards. But it is art. Maybe it’s not. Maybe it is just a screwed up car with paint all over it.” [Laughs]

RICHARD JACKSON: CAR WASH > 25/10, wo/me/We > za/sa/Sa 14 > 18.00, gratis/gratuit/free, CAB Art Center, rue Borrensstraat 32-34, Elsene/Ixelles, 02-644.34.32, www.cab.be