Helios is a commissioned work. Originally it was supposed to be a typical Rohrer piece, like, for example, Flower Power in front of the Donauhallen. But even though the cannibalised body of the Porsche 911 only had scrap value, the artist could not quite bring himself to attack it with an angle grinder. And so, the idea of gold-plating the car was born. Inspired by Greek icons, Rohrer primed the sandblasted body, marked by rust and dents, inside and out with red paint, onto which he applied the approximately 100-110 nm thin gold leaf squares in months of meditative work. As in the icons, the red colour still shimmers through here and there and invests the work with a patina. The title Helios is inspired by the name of the Greek sun god who steered his horse-drawn fiery sun chariot across the sky. Rohrer interpreted the Porsche as a modern battle chariot and so the title was born. The sun symbol, which the artist incised into the paintwork on the bonnet before gilding, is also inspired by Greek mythology.

Stefan Rohrer, 2021