Type Sculpture Province British Columbia Year 2015 | Artist Marcus Bowcott Created 2015 | |
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Location Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Address 1273-1283 Quebec St, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2R6, Canada Hours Open today · Open 24 hoursTuesdayOpen 24 hoursWednesdayOpen 24 hoursThursdayOpen 24 hoursFridayOpen 24 hoursSaturdayOpen 24 hoursSundayOpen 24 hoursMondayOpen 24 hoursSuggest an edit Similar A‑maze‑ing Laughter, Digital Orca, The Drop, Girl in a Wetsuit | ||
Vancouver biennale marcus bowcott s trans am totem
Trans Am Totem is a public art installation in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, created by sculptor Marcus Bowcott. Part of the Vancouver Biennale, the piece was unveiled in April 2015. Located at the intersection of Quebec Street and Milross Avenue, near False Creek, east of Vancouver's Downtown area, the sculpture incorporates stacked cars on top of a base made from a tree trunk. It stands 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighs 11,340 kilograms (25,000 lb).
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Time lapse of trans am totem by marcus bowcott
Background
Bowcott's fascination for crumbling cars started when working on tow boats on the Fraser River in the 1980s. Farmers used cars as breakwaters to stop the river banks from eroding, leaving the cars in various states of ruin. Bowcott attempted to record his impressions of the decayed vehicles in paintings, but was dissatisfied with the results. After teaching at Capilano University for 22 years, Bowcott started working on the Trans Am Totem project for the 2014–2016 Vancouver Biennale.
Construction of the stack of automobiles took two years, with the assistance of Bowcott's partner Helene Aspinall and structural engineer Eric Karsh. The Vancouver Biennale supplied 10,000 CAD of the construction and installation costs; the remainder were put up by the artist. After installing the sculpture, Bowcott launched a crowdfunding campaign that recouped 6,500 CAD of the installation costs. Bowcott has stated that the piece is a "sculptural response" to the urban site. It is as much a "celebration" of our mobility and technology as it is a critique of "throwaway consumer culture".
Materials
The sculpture incorporates five vehicles atop a wood base, made from a single tree. The vehicles include a 700 series BMW, a Honda Civic, a Volkswagen Golf Mk1 Cabriolet, with a 1981 Pontiac Trans Am on the top. The vehicles, donated by a local scrapyard, had their engines, transmissions and drivetrains removed to reduce their weight. A solar-powered electrical system was installed to power the vehicles' headlights and taillights. The cars are fixed to a steel column which rises through the centre of the sculpture. Bowcott also repainted the vehicles. The wooden base which supports the cars is from the stump of an old-growth cedar tree, which was transported from southern Vancouver Island. The tree was separated into halves along its length, to incorporate the central steel column.