Frenched Ash Trays (1997-1998)

Î97 Ford with Frenched Ashtray, '97 Honda with Frenched Ashtray, '98 Merc with Frenched Ashtray, and '97 Chevy with Frenched Ashtray are customized body parts for new cars that give form to the unacknowledged activity of leaning on the back of a car and smoking a cigarette. This is intended to attract an oppositional secondary use for the exterior of the car where something contemplative happens. I chose neutral late 90âs cars that seem indistinguishable because I wanted to find the subtle differences and respond to the original design details of each car. There is a vocabulary of how a form begins and ends, how a line breaks, that makes each ashtray fit into its context/car. The project takes the form of illustrative drawings, model photos, and the customized parts. Each sculptural piece is incomplete in itself and is intended to be sited on one of the thousands of cars of the model, year, and color that matches it.