After seeing the art group Ant Farm's bubble environment display at the Whitney's "Summer of Love - Art of the Psychedellic Era" two weeks ago, I was reminded once again of their participatory art project on oil millionaire Stanley Marsh 3's land west of Amarillo, Texas. Marsh once said "Art is a form of insanity and I do it very well." My take today: Old things that stick up to haunt us. Marsh sponsored Ant Farm's 1974 installation, the Cadillac Ranch. It was dug up and resinstalled in 1997. So I stopped by on my way West to revisit the art, which is a statement about the paradoxical sense of place, roadside attractions and the mobility and freedom of the automobile. I could hardly breathe for all the paint fumes in the air from the tourist/artists leaving their graffiti marks. (Not sure which is worse: the paint fumes or the smell of the cattle feed/fattening/lot not too far away. Both are blows to the nose.)
Marsh had a sense of humor. He installed signs with slogans all over Amarillo and Leg Sculptures between Amarillo and Canyon, Texas. Who expects to find much art in the Texas Panhandle. But voila, it is there. The angle of the half-buried cars corresponds to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. My photo set on flickr of the Cadillac Ranch has more. Dead cadillacs. What a way to let go of something -- just bury it half-way.
Leg stretch on old Route 66, thinking about how we only partly let go of old things. We hang on to the past. Crazy.
One morning I looked out in the backyard to see our border collie burying something - halfway! I could see the tail feathers of a grackle sticking straight up out of the dirt. Must not be a species specific behavior.
Posted by: allison | June 23, 2007 at 09:34 AM
You went right through our neck of the woods! Wish we'd known! The sculpture of the legs is really pretty funny. For several years, it was just legs. Then a few years back, someone painted socks on it. My son says the toes are now painted. I haven't taken time to look!
Those cars sticking up are such a sight. But hey - when we were in Dodge City, Kansas they had a scenic overlook outside the city. It was an overlook over 3 feedyards! Not only could you see, but you could smell as well!
Posted by: Strawberry | June 25, 2007 at 10:03 PM