A Car Crash “As Slow As Possible”

by Esfand Khoram

For his most recent artwork,  Jonathan Schipper who had previously crashed two cars in slow motion,  has now made a white VW Golf hitting the wall of a shop painted entirely in white at the speed of 7mm per hour in a choreographed collision. So slowly you don’t really notice that anything is taking place, but the car will be eventually completely destroyed, “a dramatic inevitability that reflects our own mortality.”

Jonathan Schipper, “Slow Motion Car Crash”, 2012. (Photo from the artist’s website)

Jonathan Schipper’s  “Slow Motion Car Crash” is co-commissioned by Locus+ and AV Festival, a month long international festival of art, technology, music and film  across Newcastle, Gateshead, Middlesbrough and Sunderland whose theme this year is “As Slow As Possible”. Watch a time-lapse video of the first and third week of the installation below:

“Slow Motion Car Crash” is on view through March 31,2012 at 16 Saville Row, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8JE.

For more photos and videos, visit the project’s webpage at Locus+.