The Shaded Berth

Exhibition. 10 works on view at ///paints.about.lights, 3515 AMBER ST, Harrowgate. The wall is circular: walking in either direction returns to the title wall. Use Tab to move between works and Enter to read a work’s wall label. Arrow keys move along the wall.

Ten works at a single point in the city, the first acquired in June 2025 and the most recent in July 2025; all of them have since been accessioned into the permanent collection. One commissioner: Police Department. The museum did not solicit any of them.

The works are exhibited in order of acquisition. Visitors will notice that the subject does not change; the museum invites them to consider what does.

1. The Shaded Berth, No. 3 — Automotive, black lacquer, oxidising front valance, arboreal shade. Accession 17800085. Acquired June 17, 2025. 457 days on view. The work is composed almost entirely of reflection: leaves, sky, and the pale line of the sidewalk travel across the black panels and chrome step bar, so that the body reads less as a surface than as a held image. Only the front valance breaks this scheme, where oxidation has bloomed into a crusted orange band along the lowest edge, the single passage in which the piece admits its own duration. Papers accumulated against the windshield glass form a small collage behind the dashboard, and grass has risen through the curb seam to meet the front tire. The museum values this entry in the series for the contrast between an immaculate upper register and a corroding base.
2. The Shaded Berth, No. 4 — Automotive, black enamel, chrome running board, overhanging canopy. Accession 17800130. Acquired June 17, 2025. 457 days on view. The work's black enamel holds the tree canopy above it as a broken green reflection, brightest across the hood and dissolving toward the rear panels where the shade deepens. Rust has taken the lower face of the front bumper in a band that stops where the chrome begins, and several notices remain lodged under the wiper, curling at their edges. Seen against its siblings in the series, this is the view from the curb side, where the polished running board sits level with the concrete and grass has begun to rise against the rear tire. The museum preserves the work for the way its finish records the canopy rather than the street.
3. The Shaded Berth, No. 5 — Automotive, oxidising clearcoat, chrome trim, stationary. Accession 17804201. Acquired June 18, 2025. 456 days on view. The composition divides along the cowl: below it, the hood has lost its finish entirely to grey primer and a chalk-white bloom of oxidation, while above and to the right the body retains a gloss deep enough to mirror the leaves overhead. A single red pinstripe holds the two conditions together, passing uninterrupted from the failed surface into the reflective one, and three chrome louvres remain bright against the black. Read against its siblings in the series, this work is the one in which the shade that preserves the flank is shown to have spared the hood nothing. The museum preserves it as a study in differential weathering on a single body.
4. The Shaded Berth, No. 6 — Automotive, black enamel, canopy shade, dappled light. Accession 17804206. Acquired June 18, 2025. 456 days on view. Leaf shadow breaks across the black hood in irregular bright patches, and the same dappling continues over the windshield and roof, so that the vehicle reads less as a solid volume than as a surface for the canopy to print on. The front bumper has gone dull and mottled along its lower edge, and the passenger flank sits close enough to the trunk that the two forms share a single band of shade. Within this series the work is distinguished by its light: earlier numbers were recorded under open sky, and here the tree has become a full participant in the composition. The museum preserves it as the point at which the berth and its occupant are read as one arrangement.
5. The Shaded Berth, No. 7 — Automotive, stationary, canopy shade, oxidising bumper. Accession 17807755. Acquired June 20, 2025. 454 days on view. Leaf shadow lies across the hood and door panels in overlapping patches, and the black paint, still high in gloss, returns the canopy above it as a green wash. Below that mirrored surface the front bumper has surrendered entirely, its chrome gone to brown scale and flaking away at the corner, so that the work presents two finishes at once. Paper notices behind the glass have curled and bleached in the filtered light. The museum regards this as the most reflective of the berth's occupants, and preserves it for the way the canopy is recorded on its body.
6. The Shaded Berth, No. 8 — Automotive, oxidising clear coat, chrome trim, dappled light. Accession 17807759. Acquired June 20, 2025. 454 days on view. The composition divides along the hood's edge: above, a matte grey field where the clear coat has lifted and gone chalky white at its border; below, a gloss black flank still holding its thin red pinstripe and three chrome louvres. Overhead foliage prints itself across the windshield in dark reflected shapes, and the same shade that has spared the lower panels has done nothing to slow the bloom on the horizontal surfaces. Where earlier works in the series record the body largely whole, this one attends to the uneven pace of that weathering — one plane surrendering while the plane beside it remains bright. The museum preserves the piece for the clarity of that boundary.
7. The Shaded Berth, No. 9 — Automotive, black lacquer, arboreal shade, accumulated notices. Accession 17908545. Acquired July 9, 2025. 435 days on view. The work's black lacquer holds the leaf canopy above it in reflection, so that the hood reads less as a surface than as a shallow green pool broken by points of sky. Dry leaves and thin twigs have gathered in the channel at the base of the windshield, and a folded white sheet has been pressed under the wiper arm where it now curls; paper notices adhere to the upper glass in a loose horizontal band. Among the works gathered from this berth, this one is distinguished by the density of its accumulations at the glass, which register the shade as a depositing agent rather than a merely atmospheric one. The museum preserves it for the completeness of that record.
8. The Shaded Berth, No. 10 — Automotive, black lacquer, leaf litter, dappled light. Accession 17926899. Acquired July 17, 2025. 427 days on view. The work is read almost entirely through its own reflections: the canopy above prints itself across the hood and windshield in a shifting pattern of leaf and sky, so that the black lacquer functions less as a surface than as a second image of the tree. Dried leaves and loose paper have gathered in the cowl beneath the wiper, where they remain undisturbed, and the glass carries adhesive placards whose accumulation is visible from outside. The museum values this entry in the series for the contrast between the paint, still intact and highly specular, and the quiet sedimentation occurring at its seams.
9. The Shaded Berth, No. 11 — Automotive, black lacquer, leaf litter, adhesive notices. Accession 17948891. Acquired July 25, 2025. 419 days on view. The black bodywork holds the canopy above it in reflection, so that the hood reads less as metal than as a dark pool of leaves and broken light. At the base of the windshield, dried foliage and twigs have accumulated in the cowl channel where rain would ordinarily carry them off, and a folded sheet of paper rests among them; the yellow notices on the glass above are the only elements in the composition that have not weathered. Seen alongside its companion works, this view is the most enclosed of the group, the surrounding leaf cover pressing in close enough to become part of the surface. The museum preserves it for that merging of vehicle and shade.
10. The Shaded Berth, No. 12 — Automotive, oxidising chrome, dappled light. Accession 17949972. Acquired July 25, 2025. 419 days on view. Leaf shadow falls across the tailgate in irregular patches, and the black paint beneath has dulled to a matte finish that holds the pattern rather than reflecting it. The rear bumper is the work's most eroded passage: rust has consumed its corners and lifted the chrome from its backing, leaving the bare mounting bracket exposed beneath. Read alongside its siblings in the series, this work is distinguished by the upper study of the windshield stickers, whose colours remain saturated behind a film of dust and pollen. The museum preserves it as the series' clearest record of how canopy shade slows a surface's fading while accelerating the corrosion below.

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