Chris Burden’s massive kinetic sculpture, Metropolis II, will debut at at LACMA this fall. The project took Burden and his chief engineer Zak Cook four years to complete.
Burden, a performance artist known for crucifying himself on a Volkswagen and once hiring a friend to shoot him in the arm, doesn’t have any particular interest in transportation or urban planning, he says, although he has used toys in his artworks since the 1970s. “Toys are interesting as objects — they’re the tools you use to inculcate children into adults,” he told Fastco Design. “They’re a reflection of society.” His mini-city is “modeling something that’s on the twilight of extinction: the era of the ‘free car,’” Burden says, referring to the idea of jumping into one’s car anytime and going wherever one pleases. “Those days are numbered, but think it’s a good thing. The upside is that cars can be faster and safer, and you don’t have to worry about drunk drivers. Think about it: The cars in Metropolis II are going a scale speed of 230mph. That’d be great to do for real in L.A.”
