art cars at Burning Man

[JAZ]

This is way off the beaten path. Literally. A while ago Sam asked something about art cars. I didn't have time them to post these images then and now I forget where he posted his questions.
Here are a couple of pictures I took at the Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. In 1995 or 1996 when I went roughly 10,000 people camped out there (bring your own food, water, shade, art installation materials, sculptural objects, whatever). It's the largest flat expanse of land in the country, a dry alkaline lakebed, and for a few days near the end of summer a tent city appears. It's flat like the Bonneville salt flats. Not even a stick or pebble on the ground for 400 square miles. Just lots of hippy, arty types and lots of fire. This year 250,000 people went. It isn't quite like anything else. There's a cool movie clip about it at: http://www.goneoffdeep.com/movie.php though I saw it once, then couldn't get it to play again on my not so up-to-date computer. Maybe you can.
Anyway, attached for Sam are a few of the pictures I took. One is of a motorized couch. There was also a floor lamp driving around, though not in the picture. Remote controlled, lit at night too. The shark car was driving around with its tail swishing side to side. The weird thing for me about that shark is that the day I left to get to Burning Man my husband and I were on a kayak whalewatch 20 miles off the New England coast. An enormous basking shark skimmed by the full length of his kayak close enough that he had to lift the paddle to let the fin go by. It was scary. When the boat got us back to Newburyport we drove directly to the airport. Then when I got to Burning Man, there was this shark car... in the 120 degree hot desert. It was weird.
If you can get the movie going, there are shots of better installation sculpture. The attached are just for fun.
JAZ

[sculptorsam]

I love it!!! Thanks JAZ! I just really like the idea of the art-car, the amateur exhuberance and inventiveness of them. Especially with all of these ultra-professional car-improvement shows on cable these days. One day, I will build one, just you wait!

Sam

[JAZ]

Actually, I'm amazed that there aren't more vehicles out there that have been arted over. They're like canvases on wheels. The only professional artist I know of who has used a functioning vehicle as art is Andrea Zittel, who does motor homes. Maybe there are others, but she's the only one i know of.

[Saint B]

Ohhhhh! Art cars are fun!!! There is an art car fest in San Francisco every year, there are some great ones out there, check out the web page at artcarfest.com and also there is an art car museum in Texas, artcarmuseum.com

Lets all make art cars, I like the ones that are powered by electricty and peddel-power. I agree with Jazz that cars are a canvas, it is funny how seriously we take them, and how much of our time is spent in them, they should be beautiful, or at least a bit more expressive!
B

[jwebb]

There's an art car that tools around Portland, and when you come up beside it you find that the driver has a clown's nose and makeup.

[fritchie]

New Orleans also often has an Artcar parade most years, though I think not all, as part of its summer-ending Art for Arts' Sake coordinated gallery openings in September. A month too early for this years' ISC mini-conference, though that's still a bit in the planning stage and something could happen.

[JAZ]

Well, here in New England I don't think I've ever seen an art car. (Had to go way out into the middle of the desert for that.) That's because we're too busy being, you know, New Englanders. Yankee traditional. You all are far more fun.

[sculptorsam]

When I lived in Austin and hung out at UT a lot, there was a great little car completely covered with rubber dinosaurs of various sizes. The guy had just run screws right through the feet and into the vehicle so it looked like they were walking all over the car. Some on the dashboard inside as well. The paint job underneath was custom, and I think it may have even had Dino-Mobile painted across the hood.

Why isn't there more of this in the world?!

Sam

[JAZ]

Good question. I suppose lumpy stuff might impact the fuel economy (wind resistance) and maybe the questionable durability of plastic lifeforms stuck to the hood might make some wonder. But this world sure could use more creative fun. I was listening to Car Talk on NPR one day and a woman calle dto ask what kind of paint she should use to paint a big flower or something on her car. She was asking because she had tried it already and when she was driving down th ehighway the whole thing slowly peeled right off and rolled over the hood like a big tub sticker. What a funny sight that must have been!
Now that I thing about it, it's amazing that no one at the Museum School has done anything really original with their car because there's a lot of way out there stuff going on in that place usually.

[sculptorsam]

Good question. I suppose lumpy stuff might impact the fuel economy (wind resistance) and maybe the questionable durability of plastic lifeforms stuck to the hood might make some wonder.

LOL!

This is why you need an old beater car. Then you don't worry about fuel economy, resale value, etc. The person with this seemed to rarely even roll up his windows. The interior was not great and as for security, who's going to steel the Dino-Mobile? Can you imagine that report coming over the police scanner?!

Sam

[sculptor]

Midwest conservatism and all that, ISIS on the truck (Take the Art To the People project)stands out----se pix

a 1/2 local 1/2 northern california direct metal sculptor, Dennis(tremendous)Patton, redesigned an oldsmobile to look 1/2 way between an old exposed chauffeur driven 20's car and 1/2 munster mobile----it ain't done yet, last year he went to burning man and said it had his creative juices flowing better'n a kick in the head from a Missouri mule-----and he said that decorated vehicles are common in California-----so when he's done with his winery show---he's heading back to Iowa to finish the car---artistic statement and all that---
remember the pooch-mobile from movie dumb and dumber---all a matter of taste?

peeling flowers------(wild guess) latex paint over waxed automobile enamel
actually a great idea for a reusable canvas

I say-----Go for it---be bold, be different, give the folks on the road something fun to look at.

TAKE THE ART TO THE PEOPLE (http://www.geocities.com/mandali/TAKEtheARTtothePEOPLE.html)

The poor culture deprived truck drivers really love her.
--A trucker at a rest stop told me he'd been hearing about her on the cb for the last "hunert" miles.---he confesed to not having been in a museum since highschool, and never to an art gallery.....which is one of the reasons I love art in public places.

[Araich]

If you could see the duct tape, wire and silicon under the bonnet of my limo, it would count as an art car. The art of survival :D

[anne (bxl)]

If you could see the duct tape, wire and silicon under the bonnet of my limo, it would count as an art car. The art of survival :D
I guess any sculptor's car in the world is art of survival. Mine is so too anyway....

[jwebb]

Closest thing to an art car I've had was in the Army, in 1964. A guy in my outfit sold me a '54 ford. He was being sent to Vietnam, and to celebrate he got drunk, drove the car out across the desert hitting many gullies and bumps and knocking the aircleaner off and into the fan, which tore up the radiator, and inspired him to jump out and shoot the car full of holes. After he got it towed back to the barracks, the MP's gave him x days to get it off base. So he sold it to me for $25. In addition to the bullet holes, another artsy feature was a beer tap mounted in the center of a huge dent in the right rear fender. I drove this car home to Oregon after I was discharged, and then up to North Idaho. I sure wish I still had it.

[NudeAutoMall]

Almost sounds as if this post was deston for me, the Artist who owns the NudeAutoMall. Would Love to see some Art Cars on the NudeAutoMall.

Let me share some of my work with you.

jwebb, it's not a 54, but here is a 49 I pulled out of the Desert full of Bullit Holes http://www.nudeautomall.com/Garage/Projects/49_Ford/49_Ford.html

Saint B The proects here are dedicated to the long forgotten 3R's, like converting a car to Propane from junk http://www.nudeautomall.com/Garage/Projects/Opel_GT/Opel_GT.html

JAZ Thanks for your passion of Art Cars. I am sculpting one from scrapmetal you might be able to apreciate http://www.nudeautomall.com/Garage/Projects/38_Chevy/38_Chevy.html

And to all, thanks for a great thread!
jb