ArtPrize 2011 logo

Ragtop at Ford

Tj's RagTop parked at Gerald R. Ford Museum

The structure of an old American classic detailed with fender skirts, and enormous front tires of cast stone, this is the biggest car in GR! Come out and see it, experience it, vote for it! (44431)

RagTop voting card

daytime RagTop Tj's vision for the RagTop goes beyond ArtPrize, and a mere sculpture. A mobile museum that could be filled with art, brought to everyday people. Hear the vision from Tj at his kiosk during ArtPrize.
street view Ford gets Slammed

  2010

Sculpture for ArtPrize 2010 

see latest video about 57D!

 

Tj's large concrete "57 Descending" was on the grounds of the for the competition  from September 22 to October 10 (see press release). The 09 was a top vote getter. The 2010 season Tj constructed a more permanent sculpture. The piece speaks to the cresting of the age of the automobile, and the ride toward new mobility we are about to experience. The composition, inspired by "Nude Descending a Staircase," reflects the swaying fins of a boomer's favorite ride careening down a switchback.

1911 saw DuChamp's painting challenge realism, usher in cubism and the age of motion along with machines like the automobile. By 2111, car centric culture will be a footnote in history as fossil fuel declines. The impact of the automobile will never be as personal and pervasive as in this last generation.

Tj Aitken, who has worked in most all facets of the auto industry, now does art about these unique times. He brings an inspired monument to the City of Grand Rapids, and to a premier museum.

Read the article featuring this piece in Concrete Network Magazine!

 See photo-show 

  

57 Descending

mooning the marriott

installation interview

2009

About Car Chase Major Impact was combined with BugSwarm for this installation  Cool Video

Car Chase Installation Grand Rapids MICar Chase - The 09 entry for ArtPrize Grand Rapids. (video interview)

As I have studied the history of cultures and art I see themes repeating in faster and faster cycles. So the car is just a late addition to a long stream of artistic object development. But look at the energy expended to pave the planet with our roads, forge our steel into machines, and continuously grow the market so there is one in every garage! It changed us.

 figures in Wake