Trans Am Totem

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Trans Am Totem

Trans Am Totem is an art installation by Marcus Bowcott in Vancouver , Canada that was unveiled during the Vancouver Biennale in April 2015.

location

The sculpture is located in Vancouver at the intersection of Quebec Street and Milross Avenue, near False Creek east of the city center.

sculpture

The pile of cars

The totem pole consists of five cars on a wooden base made from a single log. The wooden part of the sculpture consists of the trunk of a giant tree of life , which has been divided lengthwise in half to encase the central steel tube.

The pile of car wrecks consists from bottom to top of red painted parts of a shortened Mercedes 190 , combined with the front of a VW Golf III , a VW Golf I Cabriolet , a Honda Civic Sedan and a BMW 7 Series as well as the eponymous Pontiac Trans Am . The vehicles were donated by a local scrap dealer after the engines, transmissions and drivetrains were removed to reduce weight. They have been repainted by Bowcott. A power supply fed by a solar module keeps the front and rear lights on at night. The vehicles are attached to a steel tube that is located inside the sculpture. The sculpture is 10 m high and weighs 11.34 tons.

Artistic motivation

Bowcott's craze for junk cars began while working on a tug boat on the Fraser River in the 1980s . Farmers used scrap metal to make breakwaters to contain erosion. Bowcott tried to portray his impressions of the rusting vehicles but was disappointed with the results themselves. After teaching at Capilano University for 22 years , he began working for the Vancouver Biennale from 2014 to 2016.

It took him two years to build the stack of cars, with the help of his partner Helene Aspinall and civil engineer Eric Karsh. The Vancouver Biennale supported the project with 10,000 Canadian dollars . The rest was raised by the artist. After the sculpture was unveiled, he launched a crowdfunding campaign that raised Canadian $ 6,500 for installation costs. He described the object as a criticism of the throwaway society and environmental degradation .

Web links

Commons : Trans Am Totem  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bethany Lindsay: Trans Am Totem, a playful monument to motion, rises in Vancouver . In: The Vancouver Sun , Postmedia Network, April 1, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2015. 
  2. ↑ Amanda Siebert: Marcus Bowcott's public artwork Trans Am Totem under construction . In: Georgia Straight , March 31, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2015. 
  3. ↑ Marcus Bowcott: Welcome to the neighborhood! . In: Blog on Trans Am Totem . Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  4. ↑ a b Myriah Saulnier: Quirky New Totem Pole Raises Environmental Awareness . In: British Columbia Magazine . April 26, 2015. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  5. ↑ Trans Am Totem . Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  6. ↑ a b Trans Am Totem merges consumer culture with nature . In: CBC . March 31, 2015. Accessed August 1, 2015.

Coordinates: 49 ° 16 '34 "  N , 123 ° 6' 6.5"  W.