The Wierd and Wonderful World of Art Cars

Have you ever heard of an art car? Take one old jalopy. Come up with your very own vehicular vision. Collect anything and everything. Then paint, staple, glue, weld and sculpt your own rolling masterpiece! Watch all your favourite stations at once with this bank of flashing televisual wonders created by Dan Lohaus from New York!

Or how about this finely crafted motorcycle stiletto, created by David Crow from Wisconsin?

With names like Our Lady of Eternal Combustion, The Button Hearse, Plaidmobile and Vehicle of Enlightenment, these cars come in all shapes and sizes.

Harrod Blank, creator of the fabulous Cameravan, even has his own agency, set up to promote these wacky wonders. The Art Car Agency boasts a range of bizarre vehicle categories Harrod has invented, with names like Hodgepodge Mosaic, Dada Symbolistic Mix or Conceptual Sculptural, and hires out these showpieces for personal appearances and photoshoots.

Cars are covered in dolls, painted in psychedelic palm trees, glued with mirrors, spoons or circuit boards, decorated with electric guitars or painted with gods, there's something for everyone! Why not check out the Carthedral, marvel at the Banana Bike, or thrill at the Hi-Tek Hoop Car?

What self-respecting gallery owner could do without the Mondrian Mobile at the opening of their new exhibition?

To see them in the flesh, why not head along to Douglas, Arizona to Art Car World, a museum dedicated entirely to the celebration and preservation of this particularly unique mobile art form, or catch the annual Art Car Fest Parade in San Franscisco from 25th-28th September.

Harrod Blank and his CameraVan

Meet Harrod Blank. He asks:

what has 2000 eyes
runs on smiles
and travels at the speed of an artists dream?

The answer of course is his Cameravan!

Check it out! Every inch of spare space has been covered in working antique cameras. He cruises the streets of San Francisco, London, or Paris capturing the amazed expressions of people gawking at his masterpiece.

This is the man himself, decked out in his "Flasher Suit", a 68-pound creation, made from over 2,000 antique flash cubes. Designed to accompany the Camera Van, it took four months to make and requires two 6-volt battery packs and constant maintenance to keep its 100+ actively flashing bulbs flashing! Every inch is covered: the front, the back, the sleeves, the inseam, even his shoes and hat.

He has even composed his own song to go with the van.
It goes like this.
I've got a vision, of making people smile,
gonna cover my van in cameras, even though it might take a while.
Gonna build a cameravan. Gonna build a cameravan.

Visit his website to go on a virtual tour of the van, and hear the Camera Van song in all its glory!

The Cameravan is only one of his fabulous creations. I'll be posting some more soon!