Carchitecture exhibition at public library

By Megan Voss

BELLEVILLE, Ont. (07/02/12) - Lilianne Denis pauses for a moment to examine some artwork by Jeff Mann at the Belleville Public Library on Feb. 7. She says that the paintings say a lot, because a lot of the themes of the pictures are of cars, and a large number of people are killed by them every year. Photo by Megan Voss.

What do muffin tins, road kill and car parts have in common?

Artist Jeff Mann’s work includes – but is not limited to – those three things. His artwork is being displayed from Feb. 2 to Feb. 23 at the Belleville Public Library.

Mann says he hopes people enjoy the work, and his goal is to inspire others.

“I’m not very good at drawing, so sculptures and print/painting are good for me,” he said.

“I hope to encourage others who may feel discouraged that they aren’t ‘good’ at art to listen to their voice and find a way to express themselves if that’s what they want to do.”

As well, he said he wants to get his message about cars out to people.

On his website, he writes a lot about his beliefs about cars and their negative effects. He strongly believes society should be setting goals about cars and reducing pollution, the improvement of fuel efficiency, and minimizing the use of natural resources.

On his website, he writes about creating a demand for non-car transportation, and doing so by increasing the efficiency of public transportation, removing the aspects that hinder it and encouraging transportation methods that use less energy and natural resources.

Mann portrayed this theme through his brightly coloured and textured artwork, using parts of cars as an element of it.

He called the process, “Reconstructing the car.” He described it on his website as the transformation from something he would generally think as malignant into something benign. He said that his approach is, however, not negative.

“I don’t make ugly pieces to reflect the evils of the car, but rather celebrate the incredible beauty of car parts and their complexity.”

There are different interpretations of his work. Lilianne Denis was attending a meeting in another part of the library, and during a break, she came up to check out the artwork.

“It’s very interesting,” she said. “There’s painting and multimedia, and it says a lot. Quite a bit of his theme is cars, and with the large number of people killed every year by cars, it’s quite relevant.”

Mann said he gets his inspiration from car parts, although he has no idea how the end product is going to turn out.

“Generally, I work directly with no preconceived idea,” he described on his website. “I choose an object, an actual car part or a tire tread pattern and respond to it by focusing on what makes it interesting to me.”

Mann began his artwork in 1999. He started with clay sculptures and moved to metal and concrete … and recently, he has been using car parts.

In 2000, he presented his first show. He displayed his work at the Chocolate Church Art Gallery Juried Regional show in Bath, Maine.