31 MPH A CRIME?

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Home Office, 2 Marsham Street

This text piece is based on Eva Weinmayr’s concern with the influx of information that we all receive on a daily basis, from unwanted emails to the flyers and questionnaires that get pushed through our letterboxes. To Weinmayr, this tide of unwanted material engulfs us, while the insistent tactics employed by market researchers alienates and damages our everyday lives.

31 mph a crime? is part of her series Today’s Question, in which she attempts to play the anonymous researchers at their own game, by producing a set of stark text works that rely on the harshly manipulative wording used in the polls. Like other works in the series, it comprises an original unwanted poll enlarged and transferred to an aluminum base using layers of enamel lacquer spray. In asking the question whether driving at this speed should be regarded as a crime, it is only possible to tick ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in the checkboxes provided. Weinmayr’s text piece conversely highlights the absurdity of the researchers’ strategy and the underlying aggression of their tactics.

Eva Weinmayr was born in Augsburg and studied art in Munich and Vienna, moving to England in 2002. She has exhibited since 2007, with solo shows at Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw (2010) and OSLO10, Basel (2012). Recent works include the installation Library Underground − A Reading List For a Coming Community, shown in the Venice Biennale in 2017, and The Piracy Project (2010), an investigation of the philosophical, legal and practical implications of book piracy and creative modes of production. Eva Weinmayr’s work can be found in a number of public collections, such as the New York Public Library, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Centre National de l’Estampe et de l’Art Imprimé, Paris, and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Berlin.

Places

Subjects

conceptual art, text-based work, crime, road

Materials & Techniques

aluminium, enamel paint, enamel painting

Artist

Eva Weinmayr (1963 - )

Title

31 MPH A CRIME?

Series Title

Today's Question

Edition

2/2

Date

2002

Medium

Enamel car paint on aluminium

Dimensions

height: 125.00 cm, width: 93.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Vane, March 2007

Inscription

verso, br: Weinmayr

Provenance

Vane, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

GAC number

18118