Panic Rev Frédéric Platéus

Frédéric Platéus’ recent wall works show us the language of sporting commodities deconstructed and reassembled, while the exhibition’s title Panic Rev points to the world of motocross.
Starting as conventional races in the early twentieth century, this genre of motorcycle sports quickly evolved into a number of subfields, from the serpentine racetracks of supercross to the daredevil showmanship of freestyle.

Nonetheless, all of them rely on heavily customized vehicles and high-tech equipment. The shapes of Platéus’ new wall works are inspired by motocross decals and the complex stitching of sportswear. Their logos evoke punchy sponsorship graphics, while the perfect glossy surfaces render the fetishization of high-performance gear explicit, reconciling the commercial blankness of Pop Art with the ebullient surfaces of West Coast Minimalism. His freestanding sculptures lend the commodity surface a sci-fi edge.

Their aerodynamic forms evoke mathematical models, exploded Rubik’s cubes, or even inchoate transformers. Yet devoid of any discernible function, Platéus seems most interested in demonstrating the formal language commodities use to seduce us, almost in spite of ourselves.

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