Art car
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An art car is a vehicle that has its appearance modified as an act of personal artistic expression. Art car owners often dress in a matching motif (much like their previous generation hippie counterparts) when displaying their cars.
Also, well known artists like Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol etc. have designed BMW Art cars, mainly racing cars like the BMW V12.
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[edit] Overview
Art cars are public and mobile expressions of the artistic need to create. In creating an art car, the
- "exteriors and interiors of factory-made automobiles are transformed into expressions of individual ideas, values, beliefs and dreams. The cars range from imaginatively painted vehicles to extravagant fantasies whose original bodies are concealed beneath newly sculptured shells"
- (from Petersen Automotive Museum's Spring 2003 Los Angeles, California exhibit Wild Wheels: Art for the Road Gallery Guide)
In the U.S. the Art Car movement is strongest throughout Texas and the Southeast, in the Minnesota/Wisconsin area, and on the west coast. Art Cars are least evident in the Northeast, although there is a large Baltimore show. In Canada, Art Cars are popular in British Columbia and also in the western Canadian plains (see Artcar Society of Canada) with shows in Nanaimo, B.C. and Regina, SK.
[edit] History
Humankind's fascination with decorating vehicles probably predates the custom of Roman charioteers adorning their chariots with objects of a personal nature. More recently, in the Roaring Twenties people who wished to express their free spirit often decorated old cars ("flivvers") with sexy or bizarre cartoon characters, such as Betty Boop. One can imagine rows of these raffish vehicles pulled up at a roadhouse where gargantuan drinking bouts would be accompanied by uninhibited jazz, lewd dancing, and eventual trips to the 'back seat.'
There is some disagreement as to what precisely started the modern Art Car Movement. It can be seen as a twining together of several influences - the hippie-themed VWs of the late 1960s, the lowrider, as well as a Merry Pranksters' creation, the day-glo schoolbus known as Furthur.
During the late 1960s, singer Janis Joplin had a psychedelic-painted Porsche 356 and John Lennon, a paisley Rolls Royce. [1] Partly in imitation, the late 1960s/early 1970s counterculture featured many Day-Glo painted VW Buses and customized vehicles (e.g. a customized 1977 Cadillac Fleetwood seen in the film Escape From New York).
Artist Larry Fuente was among the first to take motorized applique to the limit with his "Mad Cad." Later, artists' Jackie Harris and David Best contributed their works to the burgeoning movement.
'Cartistry' truly attained unstoppable momentum as a social and artistic movement in the 1990s, on the spur of movies and books with a wide underground following, and the development of innovative art display venues such as Burning Man.Among the countless latecomers, yet ever-present, has been filmmaker Harrod Blank, [2] who has not only made 3 full-length documentary films on Art Cars, but has made three outstanding arted vehicles himself, and who founded the U.S.'s second largest Art Car festival in the San Francisco Bay Area (q.v.)
A well known early art car used for commercial advertisement was the Oscar Meyer Wienie Wagon -- Later versions were known as the Wienermobile. These are bus-sized vehicles styled to appear as a hot dog on a bun.
[edit] Artistic styles
Later themes have become more widely focused and more satirical or dark in theme: the Latte Mobile, the Copper Car, the Carthedral, the Vain Van, Jahmbi the Tiki Bus, the Camera Van, Mirabilis Statuarius Vehiculum, The Grape (Revenge of the Road Kill), Rocket Van, Titanic Limo. One of the funniest and most inventive entries in recent memory was titled "Student Driver:" it featured a telephone pole laminated through one corner of the cabin; a leg with roller skate still attached projecting from one wheel well; and sundry jokey dents and marks of mayhem all over the vehicle. Science fiction themes (monsters, giant insects from Them!, flying saucers) are common crowd pleasers. Expressions of the Gothic and the sublime are not unknown. Surrealism is commonplace. In parades and shows, shtick often includes 'arted' bicycles or motor-scooters or costumed roller-skaters weaving among the art cars. Many Art Car owners are natural-born hams, and incorporate elements of music or street theater in their presentation.
Art cars have been surfaced with stone, with brick, with computer boards, with pennies, with tree bark. There is an ever-expanding search for new frontiers and new effects: spinning windmills, orifices spewing flames, steam, or smoke, things that light up after dark, random noise generators, mini performance stages on roofs, truck beds, skirts. An art cartist is limited only by his/her imagination. Sympathetic souls often turn up to compensate for gaps in technical expertise, enabling the artist to reach beyond perceived physical limitations and achieve an artistic triumph. Providing an example of the unexpected and wondrous, Art Cars bring surprise and laughter wherever they roam, helping to defuse road rage on the congested highways of the U.S.A. As one Cartist said, "It gets 500 smiles to the gallon."
[edit] Art Cars vs. Mutant Vehicles
Art Cars have been featured at Burning Man since its inception but in recent years the festival has been forced to limit the number of vehicles on the playa. As such they have restricted the vehicles that are licenced to what they are now calling "mutant vehicles". There has been some confusion within the Burning Man and Art Car communities over these two terms, with some believing the terms are simply synonyms. According to ArtCar Artist and Art Car Fest organizer Philo Northrup, artcars are "street-legal vehicles that have been permanently transformed into mobile sculptures". According to the Burning Man DMV, Mutant Vehicles are "'art on wheels': radically, stunningly, (usually) permanently, and safely modified motorized vehicles". Obviously there is some overlap in these categories. In general if you can still easily tell what kind of a vehicle it was created from it's probably an artcar. If it can't be legally driven in city streets it's probably a mutant vehicle. A good example of a creation that is both an Art Car and a Mutant Vehicle is Carthedral. [3]
[edit] Art Cars vs. Customs and Lowriders
While there is no clear line between where a car is called a custom car and an Art car, in general Art car has fewer stylistic guidelines and tends more towards folk art, wheras a custom car usually strives to stretch the rules of standard automotive design without breaking them. Lowriders and Custom cars are often works of art in their own right and some Art car parades and gatherings have allowed them as entrants over the years. Lowriders often sport elaborate paintjobs that clearly qualify as art, thus bridging the gap between the two cultures.
[edit] Construction and Decoration Techniques
Art Cars range from simply painted to complete bodies constructed from the ground up. For painted cars, one-shot sign enamel is a favorite due to its bright colors and high durability. Other artists have used everything from professional artists oil paint to children's poster paint (the latter being a temporary art car medium).
For moving beyond the confines of the manufactured shape of a car, many options are available. One common type of art car is referred to as a gluey in that objects of all types imaginable are glued onto the car's surface. Silicone adhesive is a favorite type of glue, with epoxy and liquid nails being other favorites. Artists will also expand the surfaces with sculptural materials such as expandable spray foam and bondo body-filler. For attaching larger and heavier objects or objects that do not adhere well to glue, bolts, screws, pop rivets and welding can be used.
Artists seeking to attach objects in a way that can easily be removed will often use magnets. Temporary car coverings can be tied on with string and rope or even with the edges of them being wrapped around doors and trunks before they are closed. The fact that an art car has some temporary decorations does not necessarily mean that it is a temporary art car. Many cars will have permanent modifications that they drive around with on a daily basis as well as temporary modifications that are attached only for special events and parades due to the delicacy of these aspects, potential for theft and vandalism, or their unsuitability for driving at high speeds.
Lighting in the forms such as christmas lights, el wire and neon tubes helps to enhance the nighttime appearance of a car. These lights can be powered separately from the car's electrical system, plugged into the cigarette lighter, or wired directly to the battery.
The list of techniques highlighted here is far from complete. Art car artists are creative and experimental types. They have used every crafting technique from sewing to stapling and every material from wallpaper to wax, with some attempts being more successful than others. Many artists are freely willing to share the results of these experiments for the benefit of other artists (or the amusement of spectators) if only asked.
[edit] Notable Art Cars
[edit] Camera Van
A van entirely covered with photographic and videocameras and featuring a video display, built by filmmaker and art car guru Harrod Blank. This vehicle has the distinction of being one of the few works of art that actually looks back at the viewer, as it photographs and videotapes them using some of the cameras mounted upon it, and has the ability to play the video back on the external screen, allowing you to watch it - watching you as you are watching it watch you. (Seen in Oakland, California, and at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles) More at [4]
[edit] Further and Furthur
The Day-Glo painted schoolbus Furthur is a remake of the original, the Merry Pranksters' hippie bus whose destination sign read simply Furthuur and which "tootled the multitudes" in 1964 in 'real life' and in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. [5]
- "The painting job, meanwhile, with everybody pitching in in a frenzy of primary colors, yellow, oranges, blues, reds, was sloppy as hell, except for the parts Roy Seburn did, which were nice manic mandalas. Well, it was sloppy, but one thing you had to say for it; it was freaking lurid. The manifest, the destination sign in the front, read: "Furthur," with two u's."
- -- from The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test
The bus is also prominently mentioned in the Grateful Dead's song "(That's it for) The Other One", as "the bus to never-ever land" with "...Cowboy Neal (Neal Cassady) at the wheel...".
[edit] General Carbuncle
This sculpture by artist James Robert Ford involved transforming a second-hand Ford Capri into the General Lee, from the Dukes of Hazzard, by covering it in little toy cars. Over four thousand toy cars were used, many of which were donated to the artist from people all over the world. The donator could leave a little message in the toy car, or mark it in some way, so they actually become part of the art whilst contributing to the sculpture. General Carbuncle official website.
[edit] Guitcycle
This art car is fashioned on a motorcycle chassis, and appears to be a large guitar. The Guitcycle is used as a promotional tool to help raise money, for a charity that buys guitars for young music students that need them.
[edit] H-Wing Carfighter
A "next generation" art car is the H-Wing Carfighter, a science fiction-themed 1995 Honda Civic del Sol SI two-seater. Designed after a Rebel Alliance A-Wing fighter from Star Wars, it features external laser cannons, lighting effects and an automated R2-D2 "Astromech droid". The interior features computers and other gadgetry. Many modifications are made from "found" parts including sports equipment, plumbing fixtures, and toys. The overall design blends elements of real war machines through the ages, such as World War Two fighter planes, with the fictional. H-Wing is a member of Road Squadron, a collection of science fiction-related art cars, and generated a great deal of web traffic when featured on Fark.com and Slashdot (see Slashdot effect).
[edit] The Nevada Car
Built on an International Harvester pickup truck as a community project during Reno, Nevada's Reno Days event under the direction of David Best. Features a "supercharger" on the hood which is actually the motor head unit from a Kirby Sani-Tronic vacuum cleaner. Owned and (formerly) driven by Patrick Dailey of Novato, California, who states: " Wherever we go people are always trying to give us more junk to put on it." and "...we hardly ever have to buy our own gas." As of summer 2005 the Nevada Car is stored in Boulder City, Nevada, in need of engine repairs.
[edit] Oh my God!
A 1965 Volkswagen Beetle with the California license plate OMYGAWD, which features exotic plastic fruits and vegetables, a world globe and the phrase "Oh my God" painted in dozens of languages. A creation of Harrod Blank, this Beetle was featured in the 1992 documentary Wild Wheels (the documentary featured a scene in a courtroom where Blank was seen contesting a parking citation on the contention that art cars and their respective artists were usually subjected to police harassment).
[edit] Phone Car
Created by business owner, Howard Davis (seen here as his alter-ego, Teleman), as a way to promote his business telephone company. It was featured in various magazines including Motor Trend and Weekly World News, and was also in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles for its exhibit on art cars.
The Phone Car is built on a 1975 Volkswagen Beetle frame and has a tinted glass windshield which allows the driver to see clearly out of it. It also has a telephone ringer as its horn, so instead of a honk, it rings!
