At almost 81 years old – he celebrates his birthday on May 24th – Bob Dylan still finds time for large-scale installations. The multi-talented master has now presented the largest of his works to date.
The “Rail Car” was presented in the sculpture park “Chateau La Coste” in Provence. Dylan deconstructed the outer skin to the dimensions of a railroad freight car. He replaced these with a latticework of iron wheels, tools and squiggly ornaments, giving the whole thing a steam-punk vibe set in the vineyards of southern France.
Commenting on his new work, Dylan said: “It shows perception and reality at the same time…all the iron parts are recontextualized to represent peace, serenity and stillness”. He invoked the “tremendous energy of the work, which would represent the illusions rather than the contemplation of a journey”.
Rail Car is a continuation of Dylan’s welded metal sculptural artworks, which he first showed publicly in 2013. At the time, a series of idiosyncratic lattice structures was exhibited at London’s Halcyon Gallery entitled “Mood Swings”. He said then, which still applies to him today: “I’ve been involved with iron my whole life, since I was a kid. I was born and raised in the land of iron ore, where you could breathe and smell the fumes every day.”
With his current heavy metal opus, he is in the best of company. Sculptures and installations by artists and architects such as Tracey Emin, Frank Gehry and Richard Rogers can also be seen as part of the “Art and Architecture” tour of the palace complex. Another musician is also part of the art parcour: Michael Stipe from REM
In addition, Dylan is showing 24 pictures entitled “Drawn Blank” in the gallery of the palace complex, alongside classic works by art greats such as Claude Monet, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall, who served as inspiration for him.