In Interview Magazine, in an interview between Rainer Judd and Solange Knowles titled “Collision and Chaos,” you can see images of Knowles posing in long, flowing dresses in front of John Chamberlain sculptures. She had the chance to see his work as a child growing up in Texas and it made an impression on her. Known for his massive sculptures of crushed, bent, and folded car parts, Chamberlain’s style of sculptural abstract expressionism began with crushed cigarette packs, once empty at the end of nights in village bars with New York School poets and painters.
Chamberlain grew up in Chicago, but followed Creeley and others from the Black Mountain School to New York City. His work with auto parts began with some beat-up fenders he found in Larry Rivers’ garage. He didn’t ask, he just took them, later realizing perhaps they were valuable, as they were fenders from a ‘29 Model T Ford. He was against “subject matter”—hated de Kooning’s paintings of women. However, I see subject matter in Chamberlain’s work. I see the scrap yard. I’ve visited scrap yards; I’ve brought my minivan full of metal and had it weighed, unloaded it, and waited in the office for my check. I’ve scrapped three cars; used those cars down to nothing, down to scrap metal and parts. The automobile is a symbol of American consumerism, and the scrap yard is where it all ends. But more than subject or metaphor, the most important aspect of Chamberlain’s art is the way he captures motion, creating texture via folding and crumpling, reminiscent of the drapery of clothing in Renaissance paintings and sculpture. This aspect is made evident when you see Solange Knowles posing in front of his sculptures, the folds of her dresses reflecting the folds of his metal.
-Morgan English