resurrecting boring: RVs

Los Angeles architect and artist Jeremy Quinn of Rise Industries recently informed me that his ASCII-like mural California Pastoral was selected for exhibition at the California Design Biennial at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, writing:

The mural, a 30' x 7' layout of vinyl text installed on a glass wall, was originally commissioned by United States Artists for their offices. United States Artists is an organization created to identify and support American artists, providing around 50 fellowships yearly. California Pastoral creates a large-scale image of lush foliage out of 1/2" tall text abbreviations of the 50 states. The work provides a layer of privacy to the USA offices, as well as a dramatic backdrop to the front workspaces.

The installation sounds great and images are up on flickr.

Jeremy’s email reminded me that RVs, another one of his projects, was lurking in my Boring folder, so I thought I'd share his drawings and analysis of these crusty urban nomads:

RVs
by Jeremy Quinn

I stepped out the door of my apartment in Culver City one morning to find someone’s home parked at the curb. A thirty-foot RV had materialized in the night, taking up three parking spaces, it snuggled right up to the bumper of my ’88 VW Fox. Stained, dented, dirty, and patched in places with anything from scrap aluminum to cloth bandanas, the rear bumper tied on with clothesline, the RV stayed with us for several weeks, moving only from one side of the street to the other to avoid parking tickets when the street-sweeper came, and taking up precious real estate in a neighborhood of apartments without off-street parking. It moved mysteriously, late at night. We never saw the occupant, though during its stay someone broke into my neighbor’s apartment just to use the bathroom. Little bits of trash built up around its door, evidence of a fast-food diet.

Then one day it was gone again. Parking got a little roomier, but now when I drive around Los Angeles, I always notice them—dozens lining Washington and Rose in Venice, along Riverside in Silverlake. There is usually a blue and white one across from El Cid on Sunset. They are a roving housing development, moving with the posted parking regulations and calls to the police from irritated new neighbors.

A nomadic, bungalow typology, the blunt, extruded sectional form of the late 70s Dodge Sportsman and the 1964 Chevy Outdoorsman repeats in neighborhoods all across Los Angeles. While they share major formal characteristics: the extruded form, bulbous corners, aluminum outer trim, passenger side door, slider windows, obtuse angles wheel wells, they all bear unique marks of the road. Custom details, little luxuries added on to the base model, hand-made repairs and improvements transform the sheet metal elevations into a custom home.

Comments

[MikieD re: used motor homes]

Thanks for this post. I haven't thought of RVs as art before.

There are some really gorgeous interiors these days. In fact, I just saw a video on TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design).com by an interior designer who was tasked with bringing the interior design of the airstream motor coaches into the 21st century. It was very interesting.

I've also linked an article on getting started with motor homes for folks that might be interest in knowing more.

Thanks again,
Mike

[Tobias Thrash]

RVs, huh. One cool thing about them is that you get to be at home while you're moving around. There's actually this one guy who revamped his car into a small mobile home. Keyword: small.