1 18 Diecast Cars

Stunning Sculpture of the Modern City Circulates 100000 Cars Every Hour!

Information may be the fuel of the modern city, but traffic is its blood. Chris Burden’s massive model Metropolis II pays respects to the never ending flow of urban autos by circulating 1200 hundred die-cast cars through its 18 lanes. Burden estimates that the sculpture moves 100,000 toy cars through its tracks every hour! Metropolis II is Hot Wheels writ large, and it is awesome. Coming this Fall to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Metropolis II is sure to attract a steady flow of visitors, but you can see it now. The videos below give you a taste of how loud, beautiful, and awing this artwork really is. I’m not sure which I find more impressive: that it took more than four years for Burden and his colleagues to construct Metropolis II, or that I could sit and watch its hypnotizing stream of traffic for just as long.

Since its acquisition by LACMA, Metropolis II has been attracting a lot of media attention – mentioned in the New York Times, LA Times, dozens of online sources and it even has its own mini-documentary. Here are two of the best looks at the sculpture. The first is from G4′s Attack of the Show for those that like their videos snappy and fast paced. The second is Super Marche’s five minute documentary for those that like artistic cinematography, chill music, and up close shots. Choose wisely, or, you know, just watch them both:

Those familiar with the world of modern performance art will recognize Burden’s name, but if you’re like me, his work bears some explaining. Since the 70s, Burden has created some pretty hardcore installations. He was shot with a gun, nailed to a Volkswagen bug, and spent most of a month hiding in a gallery. All in the name of art. Yet that extreme beginning has slowly matured into an equally extreme fascination with modern life and technology. Burden built a concept car capable of achieving 100 miles per gallon, a mechanical television, a kitchen completely filled with light bulbs, and an automated assembly line that manufactured rubber-band powered airplanes. Most impressively perhaps was Ghost Ship , a robotic yacht that traveled autonomously around the UK in 2005.

Metropolis I, now on display in Japan, was completed in 2004 with just 80 cars and two single lane highways. Burden knew he wanted something bigger. Metropolis II is ten feet high, thirty feet wide, and filled with ten times as many cars and lanes as its predecessor (there are even 13 trains, too). With Metropolis II Burden continues to examine and comment on modern living, and the strange pulse of noise and traffic that is familiar to every urban citizen.

Standard Guide to 1, 18 Scale Die-Cast Cars

Racing and Collecting Slot Cars

International directory of company histories

Motor record

The Motor car journal