Fail
2025
Bronze
4 x 7 x 3 cm (sculpture) / 30 x 30 x 100 cm (plinth)
All images © Fábio Colaço
2025
Bronze
4 x 7 x 3 cm (sculpture) / 30 x 30 x 100 cm (plinth)
All images © Fábio Colaço
This is a sculptural intervention that reimagines a miniature Tesla Model S Plaid Hot Wheels car, meticulously cast in bronze and displayed on a wall plinth in an overturned position, evoking the aftermath of an accident. This seemingly playful yet deeply ironic work serves as a critique and a symbol of contemporary disillusionment, in the context of the growing wave of protests against Elon Musk. By translating a mass-produced toy — an object associated with childhood fantasies of speed and technological marvel — into a heavy and immutable bronze artifact, the piece subverts its original connotations of progress and aspiration. The deliberate staging of the overturned car amplifies this rupture, transforming an icon of success and innovation into a symbol of failure, instability and unintended consequences. Charged with political and cultural resonance, this work deals with the contradictions of modern techno-utopianism, where promises of a brighter future often collide with the realities of power, labor exploitation and corporate overreach. In this frozen moment of wreckage, the work invites reflection on the fragility of unchecked ambition, questioning the narratives that drive contemporary capitalism and the mythos surrounding its most polarizing figures.