Untitled (Celestial Motors)

2012 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

6:38 minutes

Maria Taniguchi


Untitled (Celestial Motors) is a visual meditation on an icon of modern urban Philippine life—the jeepney. This ubiquitous form of public transportation, originally built from U. S. military jeeps left on the islands after World War II, is normally exuberantly painted and personalized. They are known for their crowded seating and kitsch decorations, which have become an omnipresent symbol of Philippine culture. Taniguchi’s formal video portrait focuses on a gleaming stainless-steel example, fresh from the Celestial Motors factory. Stripped into its basic form and shot against a white backdrop, almost like an advertisement, Untitled (Celestial Motors) bears the jeepney as an object of study. Nearly static, abstracted details of the jeepney are intercut with deliberate pans across its body. Throughout her paintings, sculptures, and videos, Maria Taniguchi unpacks knowledge and experience—connecting material culture, technology, and natural evolution—and investigates space and time, along with social and historical contexts. Whether with her quasi-abstract brick paintings or with the moving images of plain and everyday objects, Taniguchi enforces the action of viewing upon our senses. The consequence is the reinterpretation of the objects, and the attainment of sensorial and cognitive experiences.


Throughout her paintings, sculptures, and videos, Maria Taniguchi unpacks knowledge and experience—connecting material culture, technology, and natural evolution—and investigates space and time, along with social and historical contexts. Whether with her quasi-abstract brick paintings or with the moving images of plain and everyday objects, Taniguchi enforces the action of viewing upon our senses. The consequence is the reinterpretation of the objects, and the attainment of sensorial and cognitive experiences.


Colors:



Other related works, blended automatically  
» see more

Untitled
© » KADIST

Maria Taniguchi

2015

Maria Taniguchi works across several media but is principally known for her long-running series of quasi-abstract paintings featuring a stylized brick wall device...

Related works sharing similar palette  
» see more

Dutch Emerging: Ruben Janssen X GRA Fashion Bachelor 2023
© » DIANE PERNET

Dutch Emerging: Ruben Janssen X GRA Fashion Bachelor 2023 – A Shaded View on Fashion From the back to the middle and around again — Ria’s wedding dress, Alan’s patterns and John’s model: ‘My project is an investigation into evolution, explored through prisms of biology, computation and a poetic personal narrative, shifting between timescales on an evolutionary timeline...

The Art World This Week: Art Basel Miami, Anselm Kiefer Sculpture Stolen, US Repatriations, and More
© » MUTUALART

Everything you need to know about the most important headlines from the world of art in the last seven days...

Art Basel in Basel 2024 to host 287 leading galleries from 40 countries.
© » FAD MAGAZINE

Art Basel in Basel 2024: A Comprehensive Guide - FAD Magazine Skip to content By Mark Westall • 8 February 2024 Share — Art Basel in Basel 2024 to host 287 leading galleries and an expanded city-wide program...

Lesley Lokko Receives Royal Gold Medal 2024 for Architecture
© » CONTEMPORARYAND

Lesley Lokko Receives Royal Gold Medal 2024 for Architecture | Contemporary And search for something search C& AMÉRICA LATINA EN FR MEMBERSHIP EN FR Editorial All Editorial Features Installation Views Inside the Library Interviews News Opinions Events All Events Art Fairs Conferences Exhibitions Festivals Performances Screenings Talks / Workshops C& Projects C& Artists’ Editions C& Commissions C& Center of Unfinished Business Show me your shelves! C& Education Mentoring Program Critical Writing Workshops Lectures / Seminars Membership Opportunities Print C& Audio Archive On Tour Places Explore IN CONVERSATION INSTALLATION VIEW WE GOT ISSUES DETOX LABORATORY OF SOLIDARITY CONSCIOUS CODES CURRICULUM OF CONNECTIONS LOVE ACTUALLY OVER THE RADAR BLACK CULTURES MATTER INSIDE THE LIBRARY LOOKING BACK Follow About Contact Newsletter Advertise Imprint Data protection Membership Contemporary And (C&) is funded by: Editorial All Editorial Features Installation Views Inside the Library Interviews News Opinions Events All Events Art Fairs Conferences Exhibitions Festivals Performances Screenings Talks / Workshops C& Projects C& Artists’ Editions C& Commissions C& Center of Unfinished Business Show me your shelves! C& Education Mentoring Program Critical Writing Workshops Lectures / Seminars Membership Opportunities Print C& Audio Archive On Tour Places Explore IN CONVERSATION INSTALLATION VIEW WE GOT ISSUES DETOX LABORATORY OF SOLIDARITY CONSCIOUS CODES CURRICULUM OF CONNECTIONS LOVE ACTUALLY OVER THE RADAR BLACK CULTURES MATTER INSIDE THE LIBRARY LOOKING BACK GO TO C& AMÉRICA LATINA About Contact Newsletter Advertise Imprint Data protection Membership News Lesley Lokko Receives Royal Gold Medal 2024 for Architecture One of the world’s highest honours in architecture goes to architect, educator, author and curator Lesley Lokko...

Other works by: » Maria Taniguchi  
» see more

Untitled
© » KADIST

Maria Taniguchi

2015

Maria Taniguchi works across several media but is principally known for her long-running series of quasi-abstract paintings featuring a stylized brick wall device...

Related artist(s) to: Maria Taniguchi » Guan Xiao, » Adriano Pedrosa, » Akram Zaatari, » Asli çavuşoğlu, » Clara Ianni, » Daniela Ortiz, » Dumaguete City, » Emily Jacir, » Haegue Yang, » Hemali Bhuta  
» see more

David
© » KADIST

Guan Xiao

2013

David is a five-minute pseudo music video that features an upbeat melodic soundtrack with a duet by the artist Guan Xiao and frequent collaborator (and KADIST collection) artist Yu Honglei...

Knotty Spell in Windy Drapes
© » KADIST

Haegue Yang

2016

A steel clothing rack adorned with turbine vents, Moroccan vintage jewelry, pinecones and knitting yarn, these heterogeneous elements are used here to create an exotic yet undefined identity within the work...

Mesopotamia Women’s Cooperative
© » KADIST

Asli Çavusoglu

2020

In the exhibition Pink as a Cabbage / Green as an Onion / Blue as an Orange , Asli Çavusoglu pursues her work on color to delve into an investigation into alternative agricultural systems and natural dyes made with fruits, vegetables, and plants cultivated by the farming initiatives she has been in touch with...

Two Palestinian Sisters
© » KADIST

Akram Zaatari

1950

Hashem El Madani, a studio photographer in Saida, began working in 1948...

Related works found in the same semantic group  
» see more

Itch
© » KADIST

Yang Guangnan

2011

Itch explores the relationship between technology and daily human experience with a motorized arm that extends from within the gallery’s wall, moving up and down while holding a projector that shows a desperately scratching pair of hands....

Series Highlights Nairobi Motor Taxi Drivers
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

Photographer Jan Hoek collaborated with Ugandan-Kenyan fashion designer Bobbin Case on a project focused on the Boda Boda motor taxis roaming Nairobi...

Orión
© » KADIST

Adriana Martínez

2015

Her 2015 work Orión is a black flag-like cloth with glow-in-the-dark symbols embroidered in the shape of the constellation...

China art market at greatest risk since 2008 (but also a great opportunity)
© » RANDIAN ART MARKET

by Chris Moore The China art market faces its most difficult period since 2008...