Los Angeles Traffic as Performance Art [Video]
Art really is subjective. So we won’t blame you if you scratch your head when you hear about performance artist Chris Burden latest masterpiece dubbed “Metropolis II”, which is a representation of road traffic in Los Angeles that uses 1,200 toy cars moving along 18 lanes.
This isn’t Burden’s first piece like this. In 2004, he built “Metropolis I”, which consisted of a 65-foot Erector Set skyscraper that stood in Rockefeller Center, 80 Hot Wheels toy cars speeding down two single-lane highways, as well as monorail trains moving on tracks of their own. This piece was bought by the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.
“Metropolis II” took shape in 2006, when he and a team of eight studio assistants, including an engineer, began work on the more ambitious version. Included in this piece are 1,200 custom-designed cars and 18 lanes; 13 toy trains and tracks; and buildings made of wood block, tiles, Legos and Lincoln Logs. The crew is still at work on the installation.
Take a look at the video below – would you call it art or just the coolest toy car track ever made?
[Source: New York Times]
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