Bridgestone’s commitment to innovation has taken a creative turn, after its tyre products became an art form at a contemporary UK art exhibition for the first time.
London-based artist Madeleine Ruggi has transformed the sights, sounds and materials of Bridgestone’s Bulldog retread plant in Bourne into a powerful body of work featured in the exhibition, Soft Landing, which was open to the public at Palmer Gallery last month. It is set for another outing again during October during Frieze Art Fair week in the capital.
The exhibition includes a 44-minute immersive sound sculpture titled Distress Purchase, two wall-based sculptures, and a print, made using materials sourced from the plant including retread rubber and some original audio recordings taken on-site.
Madeleine visited Bridgestone’s Lincolnshire based factory in 2024, where she was given a full tour of the retread process by the team, including plant manager Dan Edwards. Inspired by the textures, machinery and conversations she encountered, she left with lengths of tread rubber, hours of field recordings, and a fresh artistic vision.
‘The manufacturing environments I visit bring to my attention fascinating materials that are often taken for granted but which crucially underpin modern life; materials such as rubber tyre tread or industrial hardware. These become part of the works I create, and I invite others to notice them too.” Madeleine said. “Visiting the factory and meeting the Bridgestone team in person gave me valuable insight into the detail behind production processes, the highly skilled labour that goes into creating such products, and how remarkably sculptural the tread can be.”
Well-known for exploring the unseen infrastructures behind global trade networks, from cargo-ships to lorry-based haulage systems, Madeleine’s work brings a new perspective to industrial settings and their place in modern society.
Andy Mathias, Bridgestone’s Head of Marketing, praised Madeleine’s efforts: “We’ve always believed in the beauty of our retread process, but never quite as literally as this. To see our products interpreted in such a way is hugely rewarding, and something we have never come across before. This is the first time Bridgestone’s Bulldog retread materials have featured in a public art installation, marking a unique collaboration and one we’ve been extremely impressed by.”
