I wasn’t really planning on attending artist Daniel Arsham’s exhibit “Arsham Auto Motive” at the Petersen Automotive Museum in downtown LA last week. I’d received the invite, but wasn’t sure since I admittedly wasn’t familiar with Arsham’s work. Then a friend asked if I’d like to join, so I said “sure.” What I saw was surprisingly moving.
I was primarily at the event to look at The Petersen’s collection, talk about cars, and hang out with friends, but upon watching a fireside chat with Miami-raised 42 year-old artist Daniel Arsham (whom you can learn more about here), one thing became clear: He’s a legitimate car enthusiast. Someone’s car-enthusiasm credentials can be hard to assess, and I’ve found that even the vehicles someone owns aren’t always a great indicator (though I should note that Arsham’s first car was a Saab 900T; he’s a big Porsche guy these days, and owns an old Safari 911). It was the way Arsham spoke about cars that convinced me he’s the real deal; there was so much depth, so much emotion, so much substance in the way he discussed what cars mean to him and to the world at large.
Arsham talked about how cars fit into a zeitgeist, and how they have the capability to provide a palpable representation of an entire era in society. Here’s what he told Wallpaper about his exhibit “Turning Wrenches” at Detroit’s Library Street Collective:
I’ve had a fascination with cars in general since I was a kid. Cars, to me, have always had an ability to create a sense of time travel. You can get into a perfectly restored car from the 1970s or 1990s, and there’s a very visceral sense of what it felt like to drive in those eras.
At The Petersen, Arsham spoke about the value of cars as a social glue — as a great equalizer that has the power to bring folks together. It’s something I’ve been saying for years, and it was just cool to hear him talk about that element of car culture in front of that audience.
Anyway, in time, someone grabbed a pair of giant scissors (likely ones sitting next to golden groundbreaking shovels and other oddly-specific groundbreaking tools), and snipped a red ribbon to allow my friends and me into the exhibit. I was in a rush, as I had another event to attend, so I only saw the display for a few minutes, but even this was enough to make me feel things.
What you’re seeing here is volcanic ash, pyrite, white quartz, and selenite crystals embedded in a casting that Arsham made out of plaster. You can get a glimpse of how Arsham does this in this HYPEBEAST YouTube video showing his DeLorean DMC-12 project:
As the press release for the exhibit calls it, what you’re seeing is Arsham’s “signature ‘eroded’ fictional archeological technique.” Here’s how The Petersen describes Arsham’s process:
Arsham’s “eroded” works occupy a space where the concepts of yesterday, today, and tomorrow collide, representing a fictional archaeology wherein objects from our cultural and material present are unearthed at some point in the distant future. These casts of modern artifacts are created from geological materials such as sand, quartz, and selenite, appearing fossilized as if they have just been discovered after being buried for ages. Through the sculptures displayed in Arsham Auto Motive, the artist historicizes the automobile—a paragon of the modern era—and its related symbols, presenting the viewer with a glimpse of future history.
Arsham told the audience at the fireside chat that he uses geological material because it “has this age to it that feels sort of impossible.” He says the crystals in the molds give off a vibe of decay, but also growth. I agree.
I know some of you more familiar with my wrenching articles are thinking 1. DT, you’ve gone Hollywood, attending art exhibits and contemplating buying an electric car and 2. It’s just some crystals; I don’t get it. But 1. You shouldn’t worry about me going Hollywood, because I’ve got some serious wrenching goodness that I’m excited to show you. And 2. It IS just crystals. And I didn’t really get it either, but then I saw it, and it made me feel something that I wasn’t expecting.
As someone who romanticizes cars and sees them as almost “living” things, I saw a darkness in Arsham’s cars. There’s a feeling, not just of decay, but of rot — of an infection. If there had just been chunks of the cars missing, that’d be one thing; but the fact that there are crystals seemingly growing in the voids makes it seem like an eerie growth is taking over the space that once was a beautiful automobile.
There’s a chasmic depth to these sculptures that gives off an almost dystopian feel. The interior shot at the top of the article, in particular, got me good. Here’s another look:
Anyway, just thought I’d share that with you. The exhibit will be at The Petersen until November, 26.
Lol, I read that headline as “I was Removed.” I pictured DT showing up at some fancy LA gala wearing his oil-stained overalls with rust streaks on his face and security walking over “Sir, I am afraid we will kindly as that you vacate the premises or be removed”.
And so continues The Adventures of David Tracy in LaLaLand ….
Car-credentials aside, nothing will convince me that Arsham is anything more than peak artist mediocrity.
What a striking exhibit. Thanks for sharing it with us, David!
Also, does the fact that you’re now going to multiple exhibits and premieres mean you have multiple articles of non-oil-stained clothing?
Interesting how the initial comment were generally favorable but toward the end had degenerated in a whole lot of effort to the art itself.
Fast waaay forward to the year 2,376,990,578. Humanity is long gone. The Earth has gone through eons of change. The sun has exhausted it’s hydrogen fuel and has begun expanding to a Red giant. A passing alien ship pauses in its journey realizing that the planet about to be consumed by its dying star may once have been home to something interesting. They come in to look. Unfortunately most of humanity’s toys have long crumpled to piles of rust and dust.
EXCEPT THESE. These objects d’art are all those future paleontologists find. I wonder what conclusions they would come to about who we were.
David, you left out the part where the crew rolled your car into the exhibit hall thinking they had forgotten one of the pieces.
“There’s a feeling, not just of decay, but of rot — of an infection.” I think you hit the nail on the head, DT. Ever seen the ’50s monster movie, “The Monolith Monsters?” https://youtu.be/NBaVo2I9hJo Don’t wash these cars. If you do they’ll destroy the world!
I admire the craft, which is exacting, and the feeling it gives me, which I will be thinking more about. Makes you think of history, future archaeology, death. Like a future Pompeii. Thanks David, nice job presenting this. Maybe you and Jason will meet more often in the rarefied aesthetic realms.
As someone who, generally speaking, hates modern art, I can respect this. It seems to be an interesting concept well-executed, which is more than I can say for the trash they used to display on campus when I was in college. I swear the only artistic thing those people did was come up with a story to justify their shoddy work on the physical piece.
I don’t get it but it’s cool. I don’t get most art honestly but I appreciate any kind of craftsman skill and this guy has it!
Or, now hear me out, I’m just spitballin’ here, that 911 could have gone to Singer to become real art. But, I guess it is cool to destroy it for this business too, right?
He makes a plaster casting. These aren’t destroyed cars. Which is something I think speaks to his love of cars, as well as allowing him to make them look like they are crumbling rock, rather than corroding metal.
I watched the video of the Delorean. Sure looks like he cuts holes in the panels, sets the plaster casts of the crystals in there and then blends with plaster.
I may have misunderstood. I thought the eroded ones were plaster castings and the 356 is an actual drivable car, but perhaps most have cars underneath.
According to what I could find, the ones that include a car keep the car functioning and drivable, which is cool.
From him: “I’ve always wanted to create a functional car that was degraded and eroded, but was still drivable. We took the entire thing apart and recast all of the sections… trying to piece that whole thing back together was crazy,”
From Porsche: “The 911 art car presents what it looked like when it was discovered in 3020. After thousands of years, although many parts of the car body were damaged by erosion, it was still able to drive with undiminished performance. This fits perfectly with the 911’s identity as a Timeless Machine, both for design and performance.”
The same article talks about his sculptures that don’t use actual vehicles. I don’t know which we are seeing here.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/the-damaged-porsche-911s-of-daniel-arsham-or-how-destroying-cars-is-art-146709.html
I’m glad you mentioned that. I wasn’t interested in watching the Hypebeast video, but I went back and looked once I saw your comment. You’re right – he cut a bunch of holes in a Delorean and plastered in some crystals. Lame.
Attention all artists: Please check with person above ^^^^ to verify whether you are making “real” art. Also sounds like they are willing to fund a Singer conversion if you have a spare 964 laying around and are short on the million bucks needed.
I think it’s very interesting not just in what it is, but what it isn’t. The use of molds and not just junked cars gave him the ability to make them look almost like fossils of cars, rather than remnants. And it gave him a freedom to create crumbling effects where there would have been corrosion or puncture. Which lends itself well to the crystalline structures.
It also means he’s not trashing a car, which feels like a bit of respect for the art that cars already embody.
I feel like there are artists who would have just trashed cars to make art, and that doesn’t feel like it respects the art that goes into vehicle design or the place a car can hold in someone’s heart. Working pieces of cars into art is different, in that it feels like an attempt to preserve something, rather than destroy it. I’m just glad he didn’t trash actual cars.
Stephen’s moldy 1994 Park Avenue Ultra would fit right in! No crystals necessary.
There may be crystals growing under the muck…
Really out there concept and totally well executed.
We’ve inadvertently done similar things to our vans on geology field trips. In hindsight one of our many mistakes was failing to explain to our campus motorpool that it was art, as this might have reduced the repair bills.
Sometimes cars are an art form themselves and sometimes the art comes from personal expressions that utilize cars, describe them, or capture the spirit of driving them. Whether it’s crystals, images or words, it’s easy to imagine automobiles as future artifacts of a once dominant culture. I remember an article I read around 1980 in C&D wherein the author described a black SAAB 900T as a P-38 nightfighter. That image stuck in my mind and a desire for that car was kindled. Six years and an Air Force commission later, I realized that desire with my own, new black 900T. Did I love that car? You bet. Was it because it gave me 30 years of exemplary service or was I predisposed to love it because of that artful review? Probably, both. I just wish I could remember which writer penned those lines: I owe them. Keep making art, Mr. Tracy.
That interior (in the last pic) doesn’t look real. For some reason my mind is telling me it’s a screengrab from a video game, not an actual three-dimensional thing. (And I do not play video games.) Thank you for sharing!
Art can have surprising effects. On a pre-pandemic trip to London I visited the National Gallery and was absolutely and unexpectedly floored by two artists: Parmigianino and Canaletto. I know basically nothing about them but their paintings were mesmerizing. I must have stared at the same Canaletto for 30 minutes.
If you have a minute, do Google image searches for them. Parmigianino’s faces alone are worth a look.
I like it.
It makes them look like fossils, like this ammonite.
https://www.fossilera.com/sp/31440/halves/cleoniceras-cleon.jpg
I hate this.
Could you explain why? I’m not being snarky – just curious.
That’s a tough one to pin down… I have never particularly liked ‘art cars’, if these can even be categorized as that. The one with the moldy look interior just disgusts me on a base level. The other sculptures with unnatural decay types just seem kind of pointless to me.
Some art is cool, some art isn’t. Cool is also in the eye of the beholder. This art is very cool.
I can’t say I like the way his art makes me feel, but I firmly believe that the main purpose of art is to make us feel something and in that, he succeeds. I’m a big fan of the melancholy cinema of the US in the 1970s (and in France and Germany pretty much in any era), and I get something of that same sense of foreboding with Arsham’s work. I had never heard of him before – thanks for sharing this David!
Holy crap this is awesome – i gotta go see it!
I think you are already getting to experience some of the art that LA has to offer! Awesome for you David! I am glad you get to experience the car scene that is in LA.
I bet the parking attendants at LA snootifests, who are used to driving Ferraris and Lambos, are thrilled with the prospect of parking David’s vehicles. That BMW can’t come fast enough.
I don’t let anyone touch my cars.
You and me both, brother.
Except for my friends. They can drive whatever they want.
As long as it runs.
Or they fix it for him. We never heard what happen to the stranded couple
Most of my friends have made it quite clear that they don’t want to drive any of my cars. They’re generally not all that keen on touching them, either.
Forget friends, I got the exact same take from my first wife.
Also the saying “you smell like an engine again” 🙂
See, the real boss move is to show up with something so weird the valet asks you to just park it.
This may translate better in person, because I don’t get it either. With the explanation I get the idea, it just may not translate in pictures.
I’m glad he didn’t use real cars as the basis for the crystalline deterioration. That choice also speaks to his bona-fides as a car lover.
I never understood it until I saw them in person. They are quite impressive in real life, and like all good art, it makes you think. About the objects themselves as well as the larger themes. It’s interesting stuff. I always like art that recontextualizes familiar objects.
He does use real cars sometimes. The Mustang and the Porsche are real.