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James Ford and the General Carbuncle
Posted by Mark Sinclair, 17 July 2007, 16:10 Permalink Comments (23)
Late last year, UK artist James Ford finally completed a project that he'd been working on for two years. Back in 2004 he bought a rather fine tan coloured Capri, for £99, with the sole intention of completely covering it in red and orange toy cars. The result is his homage to the famous "General Lee" car from the Dukes of Hazzard: The General Carbuncle.
The project is one of 24 selected for Gum (Saatchi & Saatchi's global content division) and creative network Cult-Geist's collaborative project, 4C – essentially, a showcase of the best young visual artists around.
We liked James' car project a lot, so thought we'd post some images of the completed sculpture – General Carbuncle – on the blog along with some of the stats involved in making it.
Here's his car before it was swamped in Matchbox and Corgi:
Part way through the covering:
And, finally, resplendant in 4500 toy cars (approx.)
General Carbuncle relied on donations of toy cars from the public in order to succeed. (Ford did, however, pretend to be a toy shop owner to gain entry into a toy fair trade show at Earl’s Court, in order to buy around 2,000 toy cars wholesale...). Ford encouraged donors to mark or alter their toy cars in some way and post their toys over to him – some from as far away as Sydney.
Here are some of the "project highlights" as described by Ford himself:
Buying a 2nd hand Ford Capri from eBay for £99.
Receiving decorated toy cars from places all over the world.
Building a gazebo to protect the General from the wind and rain...
...the gazebo being destroyed in weather and having to repair it with wooden sticks, tape and string.
In September 2006 General Carbuncle was nominated, and eventually voted into, the Saatchi Your Gallery @ The Guardian exhibition in London, October 2006.
Auctioning the sculpture on eBay, so that the process has come full circle.
Number of cars to cover a door = 450.
Number of cars to cover the bonnet = 1,000.
Number of cars to cover the roof = 900.
Estimated total to cover the entire car = 3,500 - 4,500 (approximations).
The most popular toy cars submitted were T-birds and Double Decker buses.
The most unusual toy car donated has been a VW van with a pop-up Kermit the Frog.
See jamesrobertford.com and generalcarbuncle.com.
23 Comments
original idea compliments to the owner
2007-07-18 14:55:00
Very nice, but with all this extra weight is it still able to jump the river?
2007-07-18 15:40:28
The term "artwork" is used too loosely...
2007-07-19 14:19:15
carbuncle or "car-barnacle"?
2007-07-19 16:01:41
Very good! Mark
2007-07-19 16:08:59
postively fractalian
2007-07-19 17:00:13
needs to be parked here!!
http://www.nowpublic.com/discovered_8th_wonder_world
2007-07-20 07:57:04
sweet ride, but would have been complete with rebel flag.
2007-07-21 00:10:58
He couldn't do a real Confederate flag, that wouldn't be "politically correct" enough. As it is, it's a parody rather than an homage.
2007-07-23 21:14:29
Very good car, but what it´s name? General hotweels
2007-07-26 15:34:11
I agree with the user that implied this is not art. This is an interesting piece, creative, and fun... but no real artistic ability went into it.
2007-07-31 01:20:25
Simply Fantastic.
2007-07-31 09:41:40
Awesome car love the flag on roof you must not be from the states.I bet your a Brit like me.
2007-08-05 01:14:28
To Maggie L. It's a British flag. Didn't you get that the owner is from the UK? Earl's Court, bonnet, etc?
Anyway, this is great stuff. I used to live in Key West, Florida and folks used to decorate their cars similarly. I love it. Well done!
2007-08-06 20:01:37
As James's Dad, can I thank you for all your positive comments.
The General is now an exhibit at a French Restaurant, owned by a Brit who won it on eBay and drove over to collect it from our driveway.
2007-08-22 19:34:40
This is crazy!!!
2007-08-28 15:46:10
for those who say this isn't art ...
there are many skilled craftsman in the world, but there are few with a wicked mind to create something artistic, pls don't post this isn't art if you never even opened an art book, cuse this is a fuckin awsome artwork!
2008-01-03 16:43:00
What a great parody, brilliant that people still take the time and effort for projects like this.
2008-02-03 15:27:00
Thanks for the informative post.. and thanks for adding our comment to the blog
2008-09-02 14:35:05
Cool idea, check out my "toy" car, a 1983 Toyota Starlet c0overed in cards, http://thecardcar.googlepages.com
2008-12-15 19:28:21
it must be good
2008-12-19 14:07:17
So what did it fetch on eBay?
2009-03-11 16:36:53
very amazing!
2009-10-16 02:56:31
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