LDF: Land of automobiles

The exhibition space at Fashion Space Gallery is designed to resemble a dystopian vision of an imaginary Fordlandia resident’s living room.

Ford set up the city for practical and aspirational reasons in the belief that it would provide a cheap and reliable source of rubber for his automobile business, while also functioning as a utopian model that could revolutionise all future American cities.

The exhibition is a collaboration between architect Azusa Murakami and artist Alexander Groves, who visited the area to source materials native to Fordlandia. Cushions made from the skin of the pirarucu, a large Amazonian fish, and a table made from ipe hardwood, or Brazilian walnut, feature alongside chairs made from ebonite, once used for car batteries, made to evoke the automobile manufacturer’s role.