92 » OpenRoad Driver
I used to fight it . I ’ ve made things for an area and sometimes the site or building just rejects it . I ’ m always making offerings and sometimes I ’ m rejected so I look for another place or the piece is temporarily stored , or I just push on through . Maybe that ’ s what art always does to artists . There ’ s no easy trip and there ’ s no easy friendship to making art , at least not for me . It ’ s always been something that bites back . You can go to bed at night and think it ’ s working , and the next day it just says no , “ you ’ re wrong .”
The bus is part of an opus that spans forty years . It ’ s a body of work that has earned Adams the Gershon Iskowitz Prize ( 2012 ), a Guggenheim Fellowship ( 2013 ) and the Governor General ’ s Award in Visual and Media Arts ( 2014 ). Adams is typically understated , but appreciative , reflecting on the trifecta of acknowledgments , “ It ’ s not too often I ’ m awarded anything . A bit of a shock all around . It ’ s a nice thing , and then it disappears and you go back to reality . It felt nice to be acknowledged and I wished my parents were still alive .”
Adams ’ engineer father figures prominently as the artist recounts the major events that have informed his thinking and creative process . His father moved the family to Australia in Adams ’ earlier years . All the while , he tinkered with cars and other objects , searching for the next feat of subversive engineering . “ My dad took a V8 engine and put it in something else to make it go faster . He was always working on cars . I was the youngest and he triggered me off into this other world . Luckily we went to Australia and the world was different . Then Canada and that really changed us , seeing things we would never see even in nature , attitude or cultural difference . Then coming back I always had this thing . It ’ s a split world where things are different .” Like father , like son .
I find a rich springboard to delve further into Adams ’ creative process , his “ beautiful mind ” of sorts . He is easygoing , generous and completely open as we talk about the origins
Auto Lamp , 2008 Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid
of some of his definitive and best-known pieces , chuckling and laughing as we unearth some unexpected revelations .
I ask him what gives him great pleasure these days , and he responds with an understated answer , “ To get to this point and be able to still work , that ’ s a pleasure . My happy spot is making ... sitting down and working at the stuff ... and sometimes being rewarded with the work just being friendly back to me . ( laughing ) The art world is what keeps me alive and keeps me on my toes ,” he says smilingly .
Canadian art would be a great benefactor of many more years of Kim Adams . We could all use many more revelations of his split worlds , ones that somehow recombine into glorious and playful new meanings . What a bash that will be .
How does your creative process work ? Do you bolt up in bed with an idea or see things visually before creation or ...?
KA : I don ’ t bolt up , for sure . I don ’ t trust that one ( laughing ). When you ’ re younger you do grab at a lot of things , but after forty years it ’ s just what sticks . Fast work is very rare for me now . For example , working on models , some take maybe ten years to finish . I have shelves around the studio and they can sit there until they come back to me a year or five years later . As for process , a place has its own mind and
BRUEGEL-BOSCH BUS Volkswagen split-window van , model kits , figurines , toys Varying size 1997-ongoing
The world ’ s a funny place . Who could ’ ve predicted Hamilton as the host of a 1960s VW van covered in objects , and named after Dutch masters Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch ? Two worlds and fantastic landscapes that you ’ ve been expanding every year for the past twenty years . How much of the growth is organic versus planned ?
KA : The only planned thing is I wanted a split-window Volkswagen bus . I didn ’ t want one that was restored . By accident I found one going home from Barrie to my studio in Cookstown and there were two sitting there in a yard . I wanted the look of a split window because it ’ s skeletal and looks like a head . It ’ s more than the character of a Volkswagen , it ’ s like a skull . I knew I wanted to interact miniatures into it somehow , and then it just grew . A lot of mistakes were made but there have been lots of years to correct it . At first it was just to the flat deck but then I just kept pushing it up and up . No matter how high you go , you can still see that world of miniatures mixed in with the large or real . What wins ? Does the miniature win or is the Volkswagen still holding together ? There ’ s this funny ambition between the two surviving . There ’ s so much growth on it but the Volkswagen is still there . The bus is a pretty large chunk of my existence . I could spend a lot more time on it . I fight for time . I do interact with the public and preparatory staff . It ’ s a piece that has its history there . There are some people that