I wanted to create an artwork from the most boring and mundane things I could think of.. so why not roads and traffic ? Its often struck me what a strange place the modern world is.. what would our ancestors make of it all ?
England is a small expensive and crowded island of about 14m2 and the roads are utter madness. Everybody in the world wants to come to England because they see everybody in the world wants to come to England. I remember crossing to Normandy one year and thinking where have all the cars gone ? And then when we returned I thought “its busy today..must be a traffic jam” if it was.. it was a 300 mile traffic jam.
You often hear the term “motorway madness” in the media and it seems appropriate. People get all excited about cars.. and our fellow visual creatives (advertisers) love to sell lifestyle fantasies with cars.. so to counter this. I draw them as odd little metal boxes with a wheel on each corner. How can you have a lifestyle fantasy when you are stuck in a traffic jam in the pouring rain ? Most cars (even the flash expensive ones) are still using internal combustion technology developed over a century ago.. it’s bit like putting propellers on a jumbo. I am just waiting for the time when we are all flying.. now that should be fun.
Sometimes people have big cars but only live in small houses.. and other times you see people have big houses but drive old bangers. I have a mate who collects all the cooking oil from our local cafe’s.. and converts it into bio diesel in his garage.. so if you smell chinese food on the motorway he’s probably just driven past.
People who drive along the M25 will know the experience of large planes taking off directly over them. I don’t live in that part of the world and one day I was driving to Dover and the traffic stopped on the M25.. I turned to look to my left and a jumbo jet was heading straight towards us. We had a “YIKES” moment. Thankfully it took off and went right over our heads. They have since built large earth mounds to prevent you from looking staright down the runway. but I’m not sure it really helps.. now you don’t see anything until suddenly a large metal object appears about 6 foot above your head .
The end.
Tags: andy mercer, cars, congestion charge, motorway, motorway madness, northern monkey, traffic jams, voiture
ROFL I know that feeling LOL
I get so annoyed when I walk past beautiful cottages, with century old roofing and beams, and they are caked in grease and fumes from traffic with the garden ripped up to house two HUMUNGOUS ugly ‘people carriers’ and whats with that name anyway? I though ALL cars were people carriers??
Hi!
I’m in the US…we have our difficulties with these things, too…LOL.
Loved this post. When I clicked on the link I was happy to see you on RedBubble. And that image is TERRIFIC!!!!