Ron Arad. Pressed Flower (RED), 2013
Steel, glass, leather, plastic and vinyl | 370 x 200 x 20 cm
Ron Arad
Pressed Flower (RED), 2013

Steel, glass, leather, plastic and vinyl
370 x 200 x 20 cm

Provenance
Artist's Studio
Gary Tatintsian Gallery

Exhibitions
Ron Arad: "In Reverse". Design Museum, Holon, Israel. 19 June – 19 October 2013
Ron Arad: "In Reverse". Pinacoteca, Turin, Italy. 20 December 2013 – 30 March 2014
Ron Arad: "In Reverse". Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, USA. 12 February – 14 March 2015
Ron Arad. Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Moscow, Russia. 18 November 2016 – 1 February 2017

Publications
"In Reverse". Design Museum Holon, Israel, 2013. p.47, 52–53.
Ron Arad. Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Moscow, 2017. p. 46–49, 54, 56, 58–61.

"Pressed Flowers" series is inspired by the fear and rupture of an incident—during Arad's childhood, his father had a severe car crash while driving a Fiat Topolino, which was made from a mix of wood and metal. The car was completely flattened yet his father survived. Arad says: 'I will never forget my father's words to us: "Had my car not been made out of wood I wouldn't be alive now".'
Cars from this series have been flattened, by a 500-ton press in the Netherlands, to a cartoonish perfection. So objects made for motion are now still, cars built for the road now hang on a wall, their three dimensions compressed almost entirely to two.

'Fiat 500 is a national symbol for Italy and our generation, and it's a very endearing vehicle. Everyone has stories about their first ever sex in a Fiat, or first kiss. We're not destroying the cars, we're immortalising them.'
— Ron Arad