In the movies and the old-school comics, Autobot Transformers take the shape of the popular cars, like Corvettes, Porches and Lamborghinis. But if a Transformer was real, would we really care what car it looked like?
Artist Hetain Patel went in a different direction by turning a little Ford Fiesta hatchback into a Transformers monument. While Transformers on the big screen can turn into humanoid figures in a matter of seconds, it took a bit longer to create the Fiesta sculpture. Patel started with a red 1988 Fiesta that might as well have been crushed. He was inspired to use a Fiesta because it was the first car he ever owned; a gift from his father. His father, who is a mechanic who converts cars into hearses, worked with him on the creation.
“For me, these ‘robots in disguise’ (as per the cartoon’s theme tune) stand as a metaphor for the other, in a fantasy world where they can transform out of a marginal position into one of empowerment,” writes Patel in an artist’s statement.
Patel and his father’s efforts are captured in a video that traces the project as it develops over time. Even though this particular Transformer is not the alien beings that we have come to know and love from the movies, it is still a miraculous feat on the part of the artist as it is recognizable as both a working-class car and a squatting Transformers figure.
This may lead you to wonder why it’s squatting, rather than standing up, poised for action. The answer can be found in Patel’s cultural background: “This posture is a recurring image in my work and forges a link between the lower classes in India and my immigrant family in the U.K, both of whom sit comfortably this way. Naturally this introduces a tension in this sculpture between the seemingly submissive nature of the squat and in this case, it’s oddly larger than life scale,” he writes.
