Alex Hubbard

Over the course of Annotated Plans for an Evacuation (2009), on view on the Museum’s third floor, Alex Hubbard continuously alters the appearance of a used Ford Tempo. Whether spackling the rear tires, balancing a water jug on the engine block, or spray painting the driver’s side windows, Hubbard approaches each task with a deadpan purposefulness. His process seems to follow a deliberate plan, yet each action ultimately appears to serve no larger aim than sustaining relentless activity. Hubbard’s continuous transformation of the car is shot in static profile by a camera attached to the side of the vehicle. Hubbard has compared the shallow space of his videos to the surface of a canvas; indeed, as much as Annotated Plans for an Evacuation documents a working process, it can also be understood as a changing pictorial arrangement of the car—its planes, lines, and colors.