Artwork Review
(Source taken from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch#/media/File:Cadillac_Ranch.jpg)
Title: Cadillac Ranch
Artist: Chip Lord
Year created: 1974/1994
Medium: Installation
Overview
Cadillac Ranch is an installation of 10 Cadillac’s buried nose deep in a line, in the dirt along route 66 west of Amarillo.
Its almost as if they were droven off a cliff and plunged head first into the ground. Now useless, the owners wander off looking for help and the Cadillacs lay, left there buried with their tailfins in the air waiting for travellers to chance upon it.
After awhile, the work was subjugated to the whims of the travellers, meaning they were either defaced with graffitti or ripped apart as souvenirs. Whats left of these cars are but a line of rainbow coloured skins of their former selves, rebirth into comic relief for a travellers amusement.
(Source taken from: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220)
Ant Farm
As mentioned by Constance Lewallen, in his writing ‘Still Subversive After all These Years’
Ant Farm — a collective of radical architects who were also video, performance, and installation artists but, above all, visionaries and cultural commentators — offers an intriguing look into the conceptual activity of the late sixties and seventies, a time that has proved to be seminal for succeeding generations of adventuresome artists.
Their work embraces ‘the latest technologies to disseminate its scathing criticism of American culture and mass media’.
In the case of the Cadillac Ranch it is a commentary about consumerism and maybe pop culture. What a car and a crashed car is in society. More interestingly is how members of the online communitty take to the idea of a crashed car.
Its almost Ironic, how one can act so indifferent and even gleeful of the idea of chancing upon a crashed car. How satirical their photos get when they interact with the car itself.
Decades have passed. The Cadillacs have now been in the ground as art longer than they were on the road as cars. They are stripped to their battered frames, splattered in day-glo paint splooge, barely recognizable as automobiles. Yet Cadillac Ranch is more popular than ever.
As quoted from roadsideamerica.com
And in a way it is quite interesting as it changes in an unsual way with time. The artwork evolves with evey added touch of a new tourist own creativity into the mix. It keeps conversations going, give people something new to talk about.
Sources:
- https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220
- http://www.stretcher.org/features/still_subversive_after_all_these_years/
- http://amarillo.com/stories/070404/fea_artbeat.shtml#.WpaDXK6WbIU
- http://www.spatialagency.net/database/ant.farm
- https://www.moma.org/collection/works/107284
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch
- https://www.eai.org/titles/cadillac-ranch-1974-1994
- http://slide.ly/buzz/view/0753e05835bf697ae7eee5b1329f801f
I like your description of how it appears that the cars in Cadillac Ranch were driven off of a cliff into the ground. And I also think it’s an interesting observation you made as to the fact that the cars have been in the ground longer than they were on the road. You might have made mention that this gesture was intended to remind us of planned obsolescence, the very nature of the evolution of the tailfins. As we know, technology becomes outdated at such a fast rate, perhaps even faster today with our digital tools and mobile devices. I would also like to encourage you to consider in your conclusion, that what is truly important about Cadillac Ranch as a public artwork is how it became interactive and participatory with the viewer. People were encouraged to paint it, add graffiti, etc., So that ties in very closely with our study of interaction. Also, references from the interview with Chip Lord would have given you an added insight into this amazing work. Nevertheless, you captured it very well.