We love to invent. Even more we love to reinvent. Chris Burden has reimagined what a Metropolis would look like. Is it near or far future? That’s up to you to interpret. This Metropolis, aptly named Metropolis II, is actually a kinetic sculpture with a web of 18 tracks intricately interwoven with the capability of fully shifting 100 miniature cars an hour. Chris Burden’s work is on display at the Los Angeles Museum of Art and has been since 2011.
As per the museum, “Chris Burden’s Metropolis II is an intense kinetic sculpture, modeled after a fast paced, frenetic modern city. Steel beams form an eclectic grid interwoven with an elaborate system of 18 roadways, including one six lane freeway, and HO scale train tracks. Miniature cars speed through the city at 240 scale miles per hour; every hour, the equivalent of approximately 100,000 cars circulate through the dense network of buildings. According to Burden, “The noise, the continuous flow of the trains, and the speeding toy cars produce in the viewer the stress of living in a dynamic, active and bustling 21st century city.””
Please watch the magic in this video by Supermache
