back to the future

Katrina Moorhead goes back to the future in her upcoming show at the James Harris Gallery in Seattle. From October 4th to November 10th, they'll be displaying the artist's works, including a wooden replica pair of doors from that infamous car, the Delorian.



But it's not all Michel J. Fox and "I'll get you McFly!"... turns out the Delorean is full of history and politics.

Monumentalizing Jon DeLorean's controversial automobile factory in Belfast, the doors lay lifeless on the gallery floor. Constructed in the late 1970s and aided by British government incentives, the factory was designed at the height of political and religious tensions in the region. As such, the factory was designed with two entrances: one for Catholics and one for Protestants. Once inside, workers came together to assemble DeLorean's highly futuristic sports car but, despite the joining of efforts, the plant was soon closed partly due to a poor business model and partly due to fraud that had gone undetected by DeLorean’s auditors. In the sculpture On or about December 1981, the artist lovingly recreates these gull wing doors out of wood. The abstracted forms and their gesture, akin to that of clipped wings, are a tribute to the workers and the events that loomed large while the artist was growing up in Northern Ireland.

- from the James Harris Gallery website

Incidentally, you can now get a Delorean made for you from original parts by a company in Texas.

And, as always, you can read up on the whole Delorean backstory on the website of the future's past, wikipedia.