Rolls-Royce doesn’t make automobiles. It makes motor cars. And, they don’t extend their reach to sponsor anything. Instead, they make cultural investments. The latest additions to their Art Programme include Indian artist Sudarshan Shetty and Chinese filmmaker/photographer Yang Fudong.
A big part of said cultural efforts comes in the form of this Rolls-Royce Art Programme. The automaker obviously doesn’t hold with the idea that cars can’t be art because art must serve its own purpose as a work of art. Rolls-Royce would definitely frame its cars in galleries.
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The statement behind the programme announces (as only Rolls-Royce can): “A Rolls-Royce motor car marries contemporary vision and skilled craftsmanship with excellence in design and engineering. Each commission is a work of art. To explore our shared ethos with the art world, the Rolls-Royce Art Programme was born. Art talks, in-situ commissions, and partnerships — the Programme enables artists to realize innovative projects, explore new ideas and engage with the public.”
The latest additions to this international program are Shetty and Fudong. The former is one if India’s most prominent modern artists — a creator of sculptural installations and environments that examine urban life.
Shetty’s commission from Rolls-Royce will look to an Indian folk tale and will be unveiled in Mumbai on November 5, 2016, before relocating to New Delhi. Shetty is the first artist from India to join the Rolls-Royce Art Programme. Like all Programme commissions, the final work will be presented alongside a bespoke motor inspired by the artist’s work.
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The folk tale in question is an allegory for “artistic expression and the importance of creativity.” It involves a husband and wife at a moment when the wife envisions a story and a song from her breath whilst sleeping.
As for China’s Fudong, he’ll create a new video work to be launched at the Shanghai Center of Photography in Shanghai, later this year. It will include a short movie based on a fable from Chinese mythology about “the virtues of perseverance and willpower.” The film will be shown to the public at the Shanghai Center of Photography in Shanghai’s West Bund art area before moving to additional locations throughout China in 2017.
As with all additions to the Rolls-Royce Art Program, both artists made individual trips Rolls-Royce headquarters in Goodwood, England, to “experience the essence of the marque and witness the artisanal practices undertaken to create the ‘Best car in the world.'” When that’s at home, it means Shetty and Fudong had a chance to examine the brand and watch Rolls-Royces being designed and built for inspiration and visual cues.
