THE SLOW INEVITABLE DEATH OF AMERICAN MUSCLE

Sajeev Mehta
by Sajeev Mehta

Jonathan Schipper is an artist with a web page. The liner notes to his work take the form of an essay entitled "The Shortcomings of the Living World's Experiences vs. The Infinite Potentialities of The Universe: A DEATH CATHARSIS PARADIGM." Right, well, the above ALL CAPS TITLE refers to one of Schipper's most recent works. Mr. Schipper explains why he crashed two 1:18th scale muscle cars, but the mechanics behind the madness is much more interesting. It takes about a month to unconvincingly compress two cars together without bending the hood, damaging the bumpers or molesting the paint. And, thankfully, crashing two $30 diecast vehicles for the sake of bad art is better than throwing away $150k on the real things. Oh wait. "These are models for a full sized piece yet to be constructed." Oh dear.

Sajeev Mehta
Sajeev Mehta

More by Sajeev Mehta

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 15 comments
  • Sajeev Mehta Sajeev Mehta on Dec 28, 2007

    I'm fine with it. I just hope he doesn't find aninvestor that'll buy him a real Trans Am and Charger to duplicate his work. He can make the same statement with SUVs, and they are rather cheap/plentiful: enough for the lovers and haters. Not so with Muscle Cars.

  • Stuntnun Stuntnun on Dec 29, 2007

    i think it be more interesting to put a squashed prius between them and see what the critics say.

  • Tdoyle Tdoyle on Dec 29, 2007

    My four-year-old daughter and I were waiting at the dealership to have a repair done on our '07 Focus last week so I gave her a "tour" of the place. I showed her the Quick Lube bays, walked the WHOLE new car lot (she said the hood-scooped Roush 'Stangs looked better than the regular ones) and then showed her the body shop, like where they may have painted "Lightning McQueen" and she loved it. She found a "boo-boo'ed" late-model F150 like mine and then proceeded to tell me what parts were missing after it crashed. She pointed out the hood, headlights and that see-through metal thingy (radiator/condensor) would have to be fixed. Glad she inherited my only redeeming quality. A car girl she is to be, indeed.

  • Nicodemus Nicodemus on Dec 30, 2007

    I don't really see why people have a problem with this. Ok the premise is somewhat pretentious, but it is nonetheless quite clever. Some of his other works are actually pretty cool too, particularly the automotron driven by a V8.

Next