Design reduction: Land Rover unveils sculpture at London Design Festival

Land Rover has once again turned to sculpture to tell its story. A new work - ‘Reductionism’ - has been unveiled as part of the London Design Festival. It will sit just inside the entrance to the Design Museum in Holland Park in West London until 24th September.

Although the medium is abstract for a car maker, the piece is anything but. Hidden in it is a sleek distillation of the shapes, surfaces and proportions reflected in the company’s newest car the Range Rover Velar, a design notable for its apparently simple form and absence of clutter. 

Telegraph Luxury called the Velar the most significant new car design since the original Audi TT concept which, coincidently, first saw the light of days 20 years ago this week. 

Reductionism is a pair of two-metre high, satin-painted aluminium and glass fibre arches sat on concrete plinths at right angles to each another. The vertical surfaces of the arches have a Velar-like form in plan, although that only becomes apparent in the second of the two arches where - at 90 degrees to the first - both the arch-like form of the structure itself and a more recognisable profile view of the car become apparent. 

Reductionism then is a reduction of Velar’s reductive design, so to speak. Or, as Land Rover’s CEO Gerry McGovern puts it; “Reductionism is also what we call our design philosophy inside Land Rover. It means every line and every feature has a purpose. It’s an approach defined by creative intelligence. Through the art of simplicity and reducing complexity, modernity is brought to the forefront – creating compelling objects of desire and vehicles with a timeless quality,” he says. “Creating a positive emotional response is central to Land Rover’s modernist design philosophy.”

McGovern is a celebrated champion of modernism, delivering regular lectures at the annual Modernism Week event in Palm Springs. Upon his return to the UK to take up the reigns at Land Rover, after an ultimately frustrating time with the American luxury brand Lincoln - where McGovern moved the focus towards Lincoln’s rich relationship with the movement - he commissioned a new home, proudly built along modernism principles. It’s filled with works from the likes of Josef Albers, Bridget Riley and Patrick Heron. 

A keen collector of furniture also, Reductionism is the second 3D piece McGovern has seen installed in London, his first was a collaboration with Italian artist Nino Mustica. Two pieces called ‘Unstoppable Spirit’ were installed outside the Royal Festival Hall during Frieze in 2014. A variant of Unstoppable Spirit was commissioned by Land Rover to celebrate its sponsorship of the Rugby World Cup a year a later. 

Although more abstract that ‘Unstoppable…’ in many ways ‘Reductionism’ is more literal in intent. McGovern makes no secret of his modernist passion for removing visual clutter and it is expected that the Velar’s powerful and influential design will be applied eventually to all Range Rover models strongly influencing the appearance of future Land Rovers - including the replacement for the brand’s totem - the classic Land Rover/Defender model which finally ended production last year after a 67-year run. The ‘new’ Defender is expected to see the light of day next year and production in 2019.  

Open to the public until 16th - 24th September at the Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street, Kensington, London W8; designmusem.org