In Reverse by Ron Arad | Design Talks

Ron Arad has compressed six full-size Fiat 500s to make his largest steel creation to date for his latest exhibition. The artist/designer’s career has been carved out of cutting, welding and bashing metal, and this intriguing show at the Design Museum Holon gives us a great insight into his work. In Reverse focuses on three decades of Arad’s work in metal culminating in a major new project exploring, through physical experiments and digital simulations, the way in which automobile bodies behave under compression.

Six crushed Fiat cars sit silently on the white walls in the upper gallery, each flattened to resemble the outcome of an accident in a cartoon or a child’s drawing that lacks a sense of depth. The crushed vehicles surround a curved wooden forming buck, a mould that was used to shape and fit the metal panels of the 500 – on loan from the Fiat Archive and Museum. Nearby Arad presents Roddy Giacosa, a recently made sculpture created by positioning hundreds of polished stainless steel rods on a metal armature in the shape of a Fiat 500. Each contoured section takes the shape of one of the vehicle’s panels and the parts fit together to form the body of the car.

Brought to international fame by his Rover chair and Bookworm bookshelf, Arad has since collaborated with leading brands such as Alessi, Vitra, Swarovski, Kenzo and Yohji Yamamoto.

In Reverse by Ron Arad will be at the Design Museum Holon, Israel until 19 October 2013.

‘Last Train’ is a collaborative work with Ron Arad and Steinmetz Diamonds created for the 2012 Venice Biennale and on show at Design Museum Holon until November. Watch the video here.

Nargess Shahmanesh Banks