{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":61744,"auction_id":209,"set_id":242,"lot_number":"168","artist":"Ichwan Noor (b. 1963)","title":"Beetle Sphere","starting_price":6000000,"signed_dated":"dated 2018","medium":"aluminium, polyester, auto paint, and parts from a 1953 black VW beetle","size":"H: 71\" (180 cm)
\nL: 71\" (180 cm)
\nW: 71\" (180 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Christie's, 21st Century Art Day Sale, Hong Kong, 29 May 2023, Lot 404","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"A wonderful masterpiece that shapes a classical vehicle into a round sculpture that visually defies its logical purpose while maintaining its original identity, Ichwan Noor’s Beetle Sphere exists firmly between both spheres of familiarity and novelty. Essentially, it discusses themes about transformation, identity, technology, and the strange relationship between man and manufactured objects.
Featuring a rounded sculpture that resembles the iconic vehicle, Noor presents the 1953 Volkswagen Beetle as something completely different, despite the familiarity of its details. The vehicle—which was supposed to transport people—essentially turned its body into a near-perfect sphere, stripping its original purpose as a mode of transportation. However, its identity was retained as a classic car due to several details on the sculpture: the Volkswagen emblem, headlights, and windshield.
Through body panels and other recognizable parts, Noor ensures the masterpiece resembles a car while pointing out how it no longer functions or looks like a normal car. The recognizable details and curves of the Beetle remain, so the piece could still be visually identified as a vehicle. Still, it has been forced into an unnatural shape that completely strips it of its purpose. The viewers therefore rely on reconstructing the identity of the Beetle from the remaining parts that are familiar to the original vehicle.
By turning the iconic machine and completely changing what it is, Ichwan Noor’s masterpiece creates a work of art that constantly challenges us to recognize an original and familiar image while simultaneously showing how it has been fundamentally transformed. His practice of taking familiar mechanical objects and turning them into unfamiliar sculptural forms asks a core question to those who observe the piece: “How much can an object change before it stops being what it originally was?” (Mark John Castañeda)","lot_group":"SCULPTURE","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":0,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":0,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":34,"lot_status":"UNSOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":0,"hammer_price":0,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":68638,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/209/242/lot/168.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":167,"next":169,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}