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| Oct. 14, 2009 |
2 Comments
Automorphosis: America's Love Affair with the Automobile Takes a Quirky Spin
Emerging from our office on Spring Street at dusk the other night, I rubbed my eyes at the sight of two singular vans parked across the street, surrounded by onlookers avidly snapping pictures with cellphones and cameras. One vehicle was almost totally encrusted with brass objects and coins (some $15,000 worth) except for the windows, while the other was covered with cameras—2000-plus, I later found out—a number of them functioning. Behind the wheel of the Camera Van, I found its creator, Harrod Blank, a tall genial fellow in a cowboy hat who informed me that these fantasies on wheels are “art cars,” and that they represent a movement of some 700 individuals around the country who express themselves by customizing their cars, usually by a process of obsessively accumulating such objects of desire as, say, spoons, or by transforming the actual form of the vehicle into, for example, a cheeseburger or a telephone.
Blank, who is from Douglas, AZ, is in town for the screening of Automorphosis, a 77-minute film he’s made over the last 13 years, documenting the art car phenomenon in funky interviews with its practitioners. The film will be shown Sunday, Oct. 18 at 3:30 p.m. at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave. in Manhattan’s East Village (for tickets). Blank will appear in person and introduce some of the art car artists. He expects at least six cars to be parked outside nearby. Following the screening there will be an art opening and reception for “The Art of the Crash,” a show of artists who use car parts in their work, at Fusion Arts, 57 Stanton St., 6-9 p.m. Four art cars from Art Car World, a museum in Douglas, AZ, will be on view at the Royal Flush Festival all day on Oct. 17 and 18.
Comments
October 21st, 2009
I have seen lots of automobiles covered with different things. From magnets, coins, key chains, etc. They are all very nice to look at!
Posted By cedar hope chests
November 15th, 2009
Not only cars but motorcycles. Saw a Harley in Sturgis during the 50th that was called a "rat bike" very interesting to look at close and see the different things he had attached.
Posted By glen
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