SPOTLIGHT: VIRGINIA OVERTON’S PARKED PICKUP
With less than a month left to see Virginia Overton’s beloved pickup truck before it says its goodbyes, we thought this was a perfect time to spotlight Overton’s commission in relation to her prolific career. Tennessee-born, Brooklyn-based artist Virginia Overton creates site-specific installations by repurposing raw materials and objects, draining them of their original use value and imbuing them with artistic value. “I think the roughness of my work comes from the fact that I grew up on a farm,“ says Overton, “you learn to use and reuse the same materials in a pretty thrifty way.” For her installation on the High Line, Overton filled the bed of her own pickup truck with brick-and-mortar, stripping the truck’s purpose as a mode of transportation.
The theme of repurposed transportation mirrors the history of the High Line itself, as a public park built over a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. When the elevated rail line ceased operation, many of the tunnels previously used by the trains were boarded up using brick-and-mortar construction just like Overton’s truck bed (if you look carefully, you can still see one of these tunnels at the Northern Spur Preserve on the High Line at West 16th Street).
Pickup trucks have played a prominent role in Overton’s work throughout her career; as elements of performance, when she road-tripped from Norfolk, Virginia to Memphis, Tennessee and collected discarded materials along the highway, as a community gathering space, when she illuminated her parked pickup in a gallery in Dallas, Texas and encouraged the audience to congregate as if at a tailgate, and as a sculpture, in the current High Line Commission. Rather than a symbol of male desire, Overton views the truck as a working tool with the potential to transport meaning.
Reminiscent of Eva Hesse’s overthrow of the male-dominated minimalist scene in the 1960s, Overton’s work often incorporates references to identity within her seemingly readymade and minimalist forms. Her use of the pickup truck, complete with a decal of flying ducks on the rear windshield, alludes to prevalent stereotypes about rural Southern America. Overton incorporates vernacular forms in her work, such as the truck, industrial materials and wildlife decals, in order to unpack socioeconomic issues and her personal background.
Don’t miss Overton’s hidden gem Untitled next to the High line, in the Edison ParkFast stacked parking lot on West 20th Street at 10th Avenue. The pickup truck can be viewed from above by standing at the top of the staircase attached to the High Line at 20th Street, from the side of the installation by standing on the High Line, and from below by standing on the street.
- High Line Art
All photos courtesy of Friends of the High Line
