When Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894 - 1986) panned his camera to capture the speeding race car, his shutter mechanism accidentally produced a dramatic, almost cartoon-like image of speed, the wheels leaning into the forward momentum, while simultaneously tilting the bystanders away, emphasizing the furious feeling of speed even further.

It is in the spirit of Lartigue, and the creative practice of “collecting wrong answers,” that the images and objects of Capturing Accidents are conceived. At a moment when the automobile and human mobility are undergoing fundamental questioning and reinvention, Bruce Mau has deployed an accidental methodology to explore creative possibilities, a cultural synthesis of autonomy and form, function and fiction. By using the software embedded in his camera “incorrectly,” he has created a group of square panoramas in which the artefact and the accident generate images that are deeply compelling and charged with inventive potential.

As technology catches up with and shapes the imagination, its creative potential has made it possible for everyone to ask different questions.

At Factum Arte in Madrid, the images of Capturing Accidents were produced at an unmatched quality using pigment inks on treated, polished and waxed
aluminum sheets coated with traditional artist gesso. They are at monumental scale: 1 x 1 meters, 1.2 x 1.2 meters, and 1.5 x 1.5 meters. The images are formed by their process of manufacture in the digital domain and the works are a celebration of that process. All images were made in the UAE over the past year.

Bruce Mau, Capturing Accidents, 2023, 100x100cm

Bruce Mau, Capturing Accidents, 2023, 100x100cm

Bruce Mau, Capturing Accidents, 2023, 100x100cm

Bruce Mau, Capturing Accidents, 2023, 100x100cm

Bruce Mau, Capturing Accidents, 2023, 100x100cm

Bruce Mau, Capturing Accidents, 2023, 120x120cm

Bruce Mau, Capturing Accidents, 2023, 120x120cm

Bruce Mau, Capturing Accidents, 2023, 120x120cm

Bruce Mau, Capturing Accidents, 2023, 120x120cm

Bruce Mau, Capturing Accidents, 2023, 120x120cm

Bruce Mau, Capturing Accidents, 2023, 150x150cm

Bruce Mau, Capturing Accidents, 2023, 150x150cm

Each work is published in an edition of 3 with 2 artist's proofs and 1 print proof. For more information, please contact: factum@factum-arte.com