Sure, we’ve seen metal sculptures before, but none of them was made out of an entire real car. The VW Beetle seems to look good both as a sphere and as a cube, though.
The author of this crazy idea is Indonesian artist Ichwan Noor, who exhibited the two sculptures at Art Basel Hong Kong, probably in the attempt of demonstrating that the Beetle is appealing no matter what shape it takes. To make the perfect sphere that you can see below, he used a real VW Beetle from 1953, so it wasn’t exactly from the first generation. For the ones who don’t know this yet, the Volkswagen Beetle was commissioned by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and designed by Ferdinand Porsche. The first one got out the gates of the factory in 1938. Soon after that, the Bug conquered the world and caused a lot of girls to go “Awwww!” For more than six decades, this car has been one of the most iconic shapes in the automotive world.
I’m pretty sure that before becoming a Volkswagen Beetle sphere sculpture, the car went through some changes, most notably being the paint job. No matter how much care the previous owner took for it, a car from 60 years ago does not end up being so shiny.
In case you missed the expression “perfect sphere” above, I’d like to emphasize that. The original shape has all sorts of elements that protrude from the body of the car, but the sculpture is perfectly smooth, which means that even the tail lights were pushed in.
Ichwan Noor is not at his first attempt of redefining the Transformers. In 2011, he showcased a sculpture which was also made from a VW Beetle, but that one ended up as a cube.
The VW Beetle cube was even voted as the favorite artwork at the Indonesia Art & Motoring Exhibition, and I understand why. The only thing I regret is that such works of art only get to be exhibited near the place of their creation. If paintings and other sculptures get to travel the whole globe, I don’t see why should be appreciated only by a small part of the world.
The following video includes an unboxing unlike any you have ever seen, so make sure you watch it.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nsQbqxas4c&w=600&h=338]
If you liked this post, please check the hydrogen-electric hybrid Volkswagen Aqua hovercraft and the Volkswagen T5 Doubleback, which is a real home on the road.
