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Local Designers create sculpture from parts off Ford’s hottest new vehicle
by
Anonymous
January 6 2004-–From the “bones” of one of the most highly-anticipated new vehicles of 2004, Detroit entrepreneur and design enthusiast Michael Chetcuti and Ford automobile designer Camillo Pardo have created an abstract sculpture they plan to unveil at a designers-only party during the 2004 Detroit International Auto Show.
Suspended 10 feet off the floor and spanning some 20 feet across Pardo’s downtown loft studio, the sculpture, which is made of scrap parts from the development of the new Ford GT sports car, resembles the spine of a dinosaur skeleton in a state of kinetic torsion.
Chetcuti, whose Livonia-based company Quality Metalcraft engineered and produces several key parts for the GT project, saw an artistic potential in the elegant outline of the parts, roughly one-by-two foot aluminum door trim rings from the GT’s stunning interior.
Enlisting Pardo’s design sensibility and help from Quality Metalcraft engineers, Chetcuti was able to bring his vision to life.
“There has been a long history of auto parts showing up in works of art, but it has usually been more kitschy than this,” said Chetcuti, who also is partner in West Bloomfield’s Chet Street Gallery and the Southfield wine store Cloverleaf Fine Wines. “This scrulpture takes the spirit of that and puts a more modern, industrial edge on it.”
Pardo, whose design for the GT harkens back to the classic European sports cars of the ‘60s, saw the project as “an exercise from design theory,” making the aluminum rings twist as they move through space. “It’s a transform rotation from A to B. Very clean and straightforward,” he said.
Pardo’s 7th annual Designer’s Night party on January 6th marks the popular event’s return to its roots at the Woodward loft where the designer also lives. “It’s always been a low-pressure alternative to the usual auto show thing,” he said. “It’s a place where designers can just come and chill, have a drink and take a load off. Very casual.”
Chetcuti and Pardo plan to offer the work for public sale sometime after the conclusion of the auto show.
Photos of the work are available from photographer Jon Muresan at:
Grassfire LLC
Detroit, Michigan
Jonmuresan@muresan.com
This article courtesy of http://www.heavy-tractor.com.
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