This Wednesday 4th April at 6:30pm, as a part of the Outside-in cinema series in Experimedia here at the Library, we will be showing the documentary Love the beast, in which Eric Bana talks about his 25 year relationship with his Ford GT Falcon Coupe.

Cars are often the most anthropomorphised and fetishised of human possessions, and after a quick search through the catalogue here you can easily see why the notion of a deeply emotional relationship with them isn’t such a wild stretch.

Juxtapoz, a contemporary touchstone in the world of magazines on popular and emerging art, point this out well in their compilation of artwork that shows the various creators’ love of the four-wheeled animals in their lives (whether fictional or otherwise). Comic-book exuberance to polished painterly portraiture, crisp black and white photography to near-garrish pulp-novel covers, balancing (as Juxtapoz often does) between the worlds of fine and popular art. This one can be picked up straight off the shelves in the Arts Reading Room.

Automobile and culture takes a deeper look, again not leaning too far in either direction toward the refined or the everyday. From beautifully abstract adoration to blood-splattered photojournalism, it works to uncover the way that the car has, over the course of the 20th century, become such an integral part of global culture, from drive-ins to drive-bys. This one can be easily requested through the catalogue for perusal anywhere in the Library.

Swinging back to the arena of cinema, Fit for the chase gives an early visual exploration through the fondness we mammals quickly grew for these motorised monsters, from the near-frightening slapstick of the Keystone Kops to the unsettled and angst-ridden teenage rebellion of the 1950s. This, too, can also be easily requested through the catalogue.