Artists Are Making Cars

I have noticed that is an increased number of artists making life sized cars out of unconventional automobile materials. This week at Freight and Volume, the gallery opens Pussy Galore, which showcases Chris Gilmour's latest masterpiece in cardboard, a carefully rendered Aston Martin DB5 (as seen above). I have always wondered about the archival qualities of such works, but if Frank Gehry’s cardboard chairs have managed to make it through thirty years of being sat upon, I figure this piece has at least a century before the detailed engine work starts to show a little wear and tear. This beats the life span of a car, and I'm betting the model beats the price as well.

Probably my favorite recent hand rendered car was shown at Rare Gallery in 2004-2005. Pause, by Chris Lawson, was the most successful work in a series (of at least two) wooden sculptures he created of mechanical objects crashing into architectural forms. Unfortunately, since this time, Rare has dropped this artist, and he hasn’t been picked up by another gallery. It’s a real shame since his work is incredible, successfully conveying movement within static forms, (which is no small accomplishment.)

The under performer in this group is director Michel Gondry’s cardboard car, which as you can see from the photo above is already coming apart at the seams. The car was used in Gondry's latest movie, The Science of Sleep, a film I have not yet seen, so I don’t get to have an opinion on the performance of the object beyond how it functions in a window display at Deitch. The fact that it is the worst of three life sized cars made from modest materials over the course of two years though, is an indication that this object is not quite as innovative as we are meant to believe.

UPDATE:

On The Cusp alerted me to above piece by Conrad Bakker which was recently on display at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art. It is no secret that Art Fag City focuses on the New York art scene, but that isn’t to say we aren’t interested in what’s going on in the rest of the country. I haven’t seen the work in person, but it still looks like Gondry is the dog of this bunch.

UPDATE:

Carl Sholtz, Cherry, 2003

Blogger and artist Tom Moody sent me a link to a car made by artist Carl Sholtz in 2003 and exhibited at Momenta Art in Brooklyn. Unlike the previous automobiles posted, this model began as a functioning vehicle and was then given a body job that rendered it inaccessible.

UPDATE:

New media artist Cory Arcangel sent a link to this recent article in the Pheonix New Times about photographer Liz Cohen. According to the New Times, “the artist is turning a Trabant, an East German car popular before the Berlin Wall fell, into a hybrid lowrider that transforms into a Chevy El Camino. At the same time, Cohen is transforming herself into a bikini lowrider model.”

UPDATE:

Reader Tim Paul directed me to this artnet link. I guess there is a market for everything.

UPDATE:

Reader Tim Paul just sent a new link to this gimicky car, which was shown at Pierogi last spring.