Upgrade

Oct. 8

Kelly Jazvac
October 3, 2007 – April 15, 2008

Kelly Jazvac, Upgrade 2007; Materials: 1998 Pontiac Sunfire, adhesive sign vinyl. Size: 4.4' high x 5.6' wide x 15.1' long

Artist Statement

Upgrade is a playful attempt at turning an economy sports car into a 2007 Porsche 911. Underneath its red vinyl skin and imitation-leather seats is a 1998 Pontiac Sunfire.

The Sunfire sells for $3,999.00. The real Porsche 911 sells for $169,500.00. A Porsche’s maximum speed is 310 km/hour. A 1998 Sunfire’s maximum speed is 169 km/hour. The name ‘Porsche’ has become synonymous with prestige, luxury and classic design. The name ‘Sunfire’, if one has heard it at all, is synonymous with ubiquity and default rental cars circa 2001. Tom Cruise and Bill Gates drive Porsches. Google tells me that Marty and Kate drive Sunfires (I don’t know who they are either). Clearly, a Porsche is better than a Sunfire.

For Upgrade, a veneer is applied to the Sunfire to mask its true design and construction materials. The Upgrade Porsche can still only go 169 km/hour, but its new façade gives it a superficial appearance of class and luxury. From a certain distance, that is. Up close the absurdity of the project is more apparent. The Sunfire’s body is mostly incongruous with that of the Porsche, but shading and photo-realistic details give it moments of believability. However, mass inconsistencies and graphic appliqués hiding missing body parts (false door handles, stick-on headlights) do not let those moments linger.

Upgrade is an absurdist and economic means of obtaining a desirable and renown object: a pseudo-slight-of-the-hand using a co-opted advertising technique called ‘vehicle wrapping.’ The wannabe Porsche embodies a desire to upgrade one’s belongings for better stuff, for the best deal possible. And if the upgrade doesn’t last very long, that’s okay, because the thing being upgraded probably won’t last that long either. Upgrade’s success hinges on its failure – it is surely not a Porsche, nor could it ever be. However, the attempt in itself speaks to longing as a governing force in a consumption-oriented culture, wherein there is both satisfaction and disappointment in the objects we accrue and desire.

All in all, Marty and Kate are probably really nice people, and their consumer reviews gave their Sunfires top marks. But James Bond drives a Porsche. Has good design and quality long been annexed to secret agents and the upper class? Or has good design and quality been usurped by an appreciation of value? What exists in between good value and desire, and extravagance and excellence? Perhaps satisfaction? Or is it disappointment? Obviously, a Sunfire dressed as a Porsche is better than a Sunfire, but is it better than a Porsche?