“Slow Mini 4WD” 2022 (Installation view / reference)
“Slow Mini 4WD” is a work that revolves around the fun of playing with a Mini 4WD, a popular toy racing car, however focusing on “slowness” rather than “speediness.” Along with the progress of technology, the world today is full of things that are becoming faster and faster. By modifying a Mini 4WD, which was originally designed for a contest of speed, and making it slower, the artist reminds us of how we tend to focus on speed alone, and encourages us to ponder what changes through that slow-down, and what we can learn from it about the value of slowness.
As a critical take on contemporary society, where everything tends to be all about moving forward, “Slow Mini 4WD” is a racing car – a toy designed for a contest of speed – that was modified to compete by “slowness” instead of “speediness.” Through this permutation of values in a playful setting, the toy itself is converted from a thing that just fulfills its purpose, into something that can inspire changes in our way of thinking. At the same time, it is a showcase of ideas as to how to modify a racing car in order to make it slower.
In addition to a circuit on which visitors can actually play with the “Slow Mini 4WD,” this exhibition features archive footage of racing cars that participated in the “2nd Slow Mini 4WD Grand Prix” race, and paintings from the “Image for Degrowth” series that yang02 has been working on in recent years.
“Mini 4WD” is a registered trade mark of Tamiya, Inc.
