Trans Am Totem

Trans Am Totem

The sculpture, looking north (2015)
Artist Marcus Bowcott
Year 2015 (2015)
Type Sculpture
Location Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Coordinates 49°16′33.98″N 123°6′6.53″W / 49.2761056°N 123.1018139°W / 49.2761056; -123.1018139Coordinates: 49°16′33.98″N 123°6′6.53″W / 49.2761056°N 123.1018139°W / 49.2761056; -123.1018139

Trans Am Totem is a public art installation in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, created by sculptor Marcus Bowcott. Part of the Vancouver Biennale, the piece was unveiled in April 2015. Located at the intersection of Quebec Street and Milross Avenue, near False Creek, east of Vancouver's Downtown area, the sculpture incorporates stacked cars on top of a base made from a tree trunk.[1] It stands 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighs 11,340 kilograms (25,000 lb).[2]

Background

Bowcott's fascination for crumbling cars started when working on tow boats on the Fraser River in the 1980s. Farmers used cars as breakwaters to stop the river banks from eroding, leaving the cars in various states of ruin. Bowcott attempted to record his impressions of the decayed vehicles in paintings, but was dissatisfied with the results. After teaching at Capilano University for 22 years, Bowcott started working on the Trans Am Totem project for the 2014–2016 Vancouver Biennale.[3]

Construction of the stack of automobiles took two years, with the assistance of Bowcott's partner Helene Aspinall and structural engineer Eric Karsh.[1] The Vancouver Biennale supplied 10,000 CAD of the construction and installation costs; the remainder were put up by the artist. After installing the sculpture, Bowcott launched a crowdfunding campaign that recouped 6,500 CAD of the installation costs.[3] Bowcott has stated that the piece is a "sculptural response" to the urban site. It is as much a "celebration" of our mobility and technology as it is a critique of "throwaway consumer culture".[1][4]

Materials

Detail of the vehicle stack

The sculpture incorporates five vehicles atop a wood base, made from a single tree. The vehicles include a 700 series BMW, a Honda Civic, a Volkswagen Golf Mk1 Cabriolet, with a 1981 Pontiac Trans Am on the top.[4] The vehicles, donated by a local scrapyard, had their engines, transmissions and drivetrains removed to reduce their weight. A solar-powered electrical system was installed to power the vehicles' headlights and taillights. The cars are fixed to a steel column which rises through the centre of the sculpture. Bowcott also repainted the vehicles. The wooden base which supports the cars is from the stump of an old-growth cedar tree, which was transported from southern Vancouver Island.[5] The tree was separated into halves along its length, to incorporate the central steel column.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lindsay, Bethany (April 1, 2015). "Trans Am Totem, a playful monument to motion, rises in Vancouver". Vancouver Sun. Vancouver, British Columbia: Postmedia Network. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Trans Am Totem". Vancouver Biennale. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Trans Am Totem merges consumer culture with nature". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. March 31, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Saulnier, Myriah (April 26, 2015). "Quirky New Totem Pole Raises Environmental Awareness". British Columbia Magazine.
  5. ↑ Siebert, Amanda (March 31, 2015). "Marcus Bowcott's public artwork Trans Am Totem under construction". Georgia Straight. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trans Am Totem.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.