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In my opinion, one of the baddest cars ever built
Special thanks to John Lloyd for his kind gift of a Flickr Pro account
Near Yellowstone National Park. This rider was one of more than 4000 who participated in Bikecentennial in the summer of 1976. (photo by Dan Burden)
Pontiac Trans AM 1999 peu après son entrée en fonction en 1999.¸/ 1999 Pontiac Trans AM shortly after his duties in 1999.
“Trans Am Totem”
Marcus Bowcott
Canada
10 meters high, 11,340 kilograms
5 scrap cars and a cedar tree
Marcus Bowcott is a Vancouver based artist working in painting and sculpture. “Trans Am Totem”, by Vancouver artist Marcus Bowcott. The 10 meter high, 11,340 kilogram (33 foot, 25,000 pound) sculpture, located at Quebec Street and Milross Avenue, is composed of five real scrap cars stacked upon an old growth cedar tree. The artwork considers our consumer “out with the old, in with the new” culture in relation to the site, its history and Vancouver’s evolving identity.
In his artworks Marcus Bowcott arranges what remains of our throw-away consumer culture. As a metaphor his work uncovers an unpleasant darkness in our society, revealing the emotional bankruptcy that results from our dependence on cheap consumer goods which are almost always produced by unseen people on other continents. His beautifully twisting sculptures attempt to find something redeeming in the detris remaining from cycles of consumer desire and planned obsolescence.
“I draw inspiration and support from my family and friends. In the last few years I have made a full time commitment to my art, especially with the Vancouver Biennale installation of Trans Am Totem.”
“The automobile holds a unique position in our culture, It’s a manufactured want and symbol of extremes; practicality and luxury, necessity and waste. We can see this in the muscular Trans Am, the comfortable BMW, and the workhorse Civic. Trans Am Totem also questions the cycle of production and consumption”. – Marcus Bowcott.
By stacking smashed automobiles and levitating them high above the roadway, Bowcott’s sculpture serves to remind us of the ultimate responsibilities we bear to our planet and future generations. Trans Am Totem fantasizes a justified end to car culture even as countless automobiles zoom past on asphalt and concrete ribbons and ooze pollutants and spent carbon fuels into the atmosphere. Bowcott’s vision of nature triumphant subversively reminds ultimately of our ongoing contributions to global warming and further environmental degradation.
Before the introduction of heavy industry, this site was a shoreline of tidal flats and massive forest with old growth cedars and Douglas Firs in the vicinity of Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Watuth Nations. Later, False Creek became an industrial zone of sawmills, beehive burners and ringed with ever increasing collections of log booms. Just before Expo ’86 the mills where removed and the area transformed. Now the area is a constant flow of transportation and interconnections: residential tower blocks, commercial business and entertainment centers encircled by cyclists, light rail and most dominant of all – cars.