This is the second in a series of sculptural works that utilise blown out tyres gathered from the major arteries of primary cities across the world. The first, entitled M6 after the British motorway that passes through the industrial city of Birmingham, was realised at Eastside Projects in 2013; the remnants of tyres scattered across a 40 ton slab of concrete were viewed only from the walkway that ran around its periphery. Here in Lyon, rudimentary cages have been constructed to incorporate cast concrete slabs upon which the tyres are elevated, and displayed to create a landscape that allows the viewer to move amongst the debris. These works represent a shift by Nelson back to the object, directing the view towards these specific forms. Nelson understands their creation as a result of an alchemy underpinned by histories, both economic and technological, that culminates in an existential moment as banal as it is extreme. The resulting sculptural forms are primal and totemic, their dense blackness contains an almost graphic quality; an illustration of humanity through the objects that we surround ourselves with, but often ignore.
