PARKING GOTTINGEN ST. HALIFAX (2011)

I created PARKING GOTTINGEN ST. during the 2010/2011 Visual Arts Nova Scotia Mentorship Program, which culminated in x2, a group show at Eye Level Gallery (Halifax). For this work, I recorded all the names of parked vehicles on Gottingen St. on July 8, 2011, beginning at 2 pm. I started at the South end near Eye Level Gallery, beginning on the East side at Rainnie Dr. At Young St, where Gottingen changes to Novalea, I crossed the street and returned on the West side, continuing to photograph each car name until I reached my starting point. 

The vehicle names include places (Savana, Sierra, Malibu, Montana); Indigenous names (Dakota, Pontiac); words about speed, power or adventure (Avalanche, Escape, Explorer, Quest, Swift); good times and music (Fiesta, Vibe, Sonata); technical code (CR-V, V70, F250 Super-Duty); and made-up words ending in 'a' (Elantra, Jetta, Versa, Optra, Mazda, Centra, Vitara). 

This text-based work was installed as a wall length list and folder, and later published in the mentorships accompanying publication, x2. 

PARKING GOTTINGEN ST. is part of my body of work on car culture which includes Testdrive (2002), SUV Series (2002), Totalled (2004), DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT (2011), PARKING (2019) and PARKED (2024).