11-25-2010, 07:42 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06Q6berM0j0
The true measure of success for a kinetic sculpture is whether it generates an emotional response. This can come from something as simple as a paper horse, or – as we have seen today – the sheer sensory overload of modern commuter mayhem.
Even the most ambitious of Hot Wheels tracks would pale in comparison to the layout created by Chris Burden as part of his “Metropolis II” art exhibit, which is intended to be a representation of road traffic in Los Angeles.
An estimated 100,000 circuits are completed every hour by the cars as they relentlessly trace their routes around the track. There is an uncanny resemblance to a real freeway (traffic jams included) that is, according to Chris, “quite intense”.
Two years ago he created a 65-foot Erector Set skyscraper that stood in Rockefeller Center, and in 2004 he made “Metropolis I,” composed of 80 Hot Wheels toy cars zooming around two single-lane highways along with monorail trains chugging on tracks of their own. The piece was snapped up by the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.
“I was happy with ‘Metropolis I,’ but it kind of disappeared once it went to western Japan,” Mr. Burden said in a telephone interview from his studio in Topanga Canyon in Los Angele's County. So in 2006 he and a team of eight studio assistants, including an engineer, began “Metropolis II,” a far more ambitious version. It includes 1,200 custom-designed cars and 18 lanes; 13 toy trains and tracks; and, dotting the landscape, buildings made of wood block, tiles, Lego's and Lincoln Logs. The crew is still at work on the installation.
The setup utilizes some 1,200 custom designed cars in up to 18 lanes, which circulate at a rate of 100,000 cars per hour. Burden bills the exhibit as “quite intense”, and I can only imagine the sound of all those cars driving simultaneously. The exhibit also includes 13 toy trains and an assortment of buildings, constructed of wood blocks, Lincoln Logs, Legos and tiles. Metropolis II remains a work in progress, and a staff of eight assistants (including a structural engineer) have been working on the project since 2006. An earlier and far less ambitious work, entitled Metropolis I, featured 80 Hot Wheels cars circulating on two single lane tracks accompanied by monorail trains. Metropolis I was purchased by the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.
The true measure of success for a kinetic sculpture is whether it generates an emotional response. This can come from something as simple as a paper horse, or – as we have seen today – the sheer sensory overload of modern commuter mayhem.
Even the most ambitious of Hot Wheels tracks would pale in comparison to the layout created by Chris Burden as part of his “Metropolis II” art exhibit, which is intended to be a representation of road traffic in Los Angeles.
An estimated 100,000 circuits are completed every hour by the cars as they relentlessly trace their routes around the track. There is an uncanny resemblance to a real freeway (traffic jams included) that is, according to Chris, “quite intense”.
Two years ago he created a 65-foot Erector Set skyscraper that stood in Rockefeller Center, and in 2004 he made “Metropolis I,” composed of 80 Hot Wheels toy cars zooming around two single-lane highways along with monorail trains chugging on tracks of their own. The piece was snapped up by the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.
“I was happy with ‘Metropolis I,’ but it kind of disappeared once it went to western Japan,” Mr. Burden said in a telephone interview from his studio in Topanga Canyon in Los Angele's County. So in 2006 he and a team of eight studio assistants, including an engineer, began “Metropolis II,” a far more ambitious version. It includes 1,200 custom-designed cars and 18 lanes; 13 toy trains and tracks; and, dotting the landscape, buildings made of wood block, tiles, Lego's and Lincoln Logs. The crew is still at work on the installation.
The setup utilizes some 1,200 custom designed cars in up to 18 lanes, which circulate at a rate of 100,000 cars per hour. Burden bills the exhibit as “quite intense”, and I can only imagine the sound of all those cars driving simultaneously. The exhibit also includes 13 toy trains and an assortment of buildings, constructed of wood blocks, Lincoln Logs, Legos and tiles. Metropolis II remains a work in progress, and a staff of eight assistants (including a structural engineer) have been working on the project since 2006. An earlier and far less ambitious work, entitled Metropolis I, featured 80 Hot Wheels cars circulating on two single lane tracks accompanied by monorail trains. Metropolis I was purchased by the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.