THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2006
15 artists reinvent their wheels
The MAK Center takes a new look at L.A. car culture and the traveling exhibit.

By CINDY CHANG

If this Saturday you spot a black Saab next to you on the freeway with clouds
of colored smoke escaping from the windows, or a Ford Bronco with what appears
to be a luxuriant crop of mushrooms sprouting from the ceiling, don't panic.
It's just art.

Sonja Vordermaler, a 33-year-old German installation artist, gave 15 artists, including
herself, a simple assignment: Make something that fits inside your own car and
says something about the role of the car in a sprawling American city like Los Angeles.

The smoke-spewing Saab, the fungusinfested Bronco and 13 other cars - Ineluding
a Honda CRV with a 90-foot-long picnic-ready Afghan blanket and a Volkswagen
Beetle inscribed with the thoughts of ordinary Angelenos - will form a "Carmada,"
leaving en masse from the Schindier House in West Hollywood. Cars will gradually
peel off and go their separate ways, reconvening at a downtown hangar at the
end of the day for a party and a chance for the public to view the projects.

The same cars that the artists use every day as transportation have been transformed
into mobile art installations that make statements about Angelenos' complicated
relationships with the machines they spend so much time inside of.