F1 Fever ... in art

Cog by Angela Palmer, which will go on show in the Fine Art Society, Contemporary in London this week (Courtesy: Angela Palmer and Andrew Smart)

With less than a week to go until the sporting world’s eyes rest on Yas Island for the last race of the Formula One Championship, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, we thought we’d get into the spirit of things on the art blog.

Angela Palmer, a British artist, has worked in collaboration with Renault Sport F1, to deconstruct the world’s most successful F1 engine, the RS27, and turn it into several pieces of contemporary art.

Exhibiting at London’s The Fine Art Society from Wednesday, Palmer’s work includes a life-size glass version fo the V8 engine made by hand drawing the cross-sections of the engine on multiple sheets of glass and a crash helmet worn by an F1 driver last year, which has been cast it in delicate lead crystal glass. Palmer also became fascinated by the world’s F1 tracks and recreated a collection of them in wall mounted neon.

The engine parts, including the cog shown here, have been sculpted using a vareity of materials including walnut to Portland stone and bronze and the crankshaft has been made into a seven-foot totem pole.

The exhaust systems are doubled in size and rendered in red hot orange and on opening night, viewers will be able to hear a sound piece, made in collaboration with former Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason featuring the engine sounds of four 8-cylinder cars driven to their limits.

For someone who is not the slight bit interested in cars, I actually love what Palmer has done with this engine, making us think about the many different elements of his high octane sport and allowing visitors to her exhibition to experience it on many different levels.

* Adrenalin runs from Wednesday until 23 December at The Fine Art Society, Contemporary. For more info visit www.faslondon.com or www.angelaspalmer.com