The last Nike I created was homage to the most recognizable car design on the planet, the VW Beetle.
This German import was so friendly and benign that many just loved it for it’s appearance. The Beetle was used in the Disney movies “Herby” because their research showed a real friendly connection and humanization of this design. People think it is cute. For me it brings an image of the financially conservative, slightly green thinking hippy culture that said “simple was best”, and “peace love and drugs man”, not raging horsepower. ( insert hand symbol here next to head-banded face with Lennon glasses)
When you look carefully at the design elements it is amazing how insect like the components really are. With very little alteration the stock components of the beetle became “bug”, so lifelike as a giant cartoon insect that most do not realize it is all parts from the same car. Only those poor bastards like me (who had to keep one alive by personally disassembling and reassembling ) recognize those parts instantly.
Two hoods create wings, upper and lower fenders plus a pair of deck lids create the body. And it really seems to fly. It is almost too cartooninsh due to the uber-friendly design forms but speaks to a whole movement in car culture. I was able to borrow back a 1954 oval window Beetle that I traded away to get molds for the full sized version. So the big “Bug” was born.
At an art fair I noticed people could not resist touching the head lights on this piece. I would glimpse them from the corner of my eye when they thought no one was watching and the hands would go to the headlights. I was just down from some food booths and by the end of the show I had to wash off the greasy hand prints!
Now suspending this form makes it fly. For the “Velocity” show in Minneapolis I hung it from an engine hoist. Foe my Impact show in Chicago I built a steel sky hook to display it on in the gallery garden. This was great until we got a foot of wet snow and my suspension system bent down to the ground! I’ll get it
My ambition? A mobile with five of these swarming around each other for the airport in Wolfsburg, Germany where it was born. My T shirt design “bugswarm”
is homage to the big mobile. Ah maybe some day this piece will actually fly. In the mean time I’ll have to be content to let it light where it may.
Next time:
The realization of the 1st Concept: 57 descending in stone.
Thanks as always comments welcome SculptureByTj.com
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