57 Descending

Cresting of "Car Centric Culture"  in sculpture

The works of Sculptor Thomas Aitken record the drama of the car-centric culture in America. Andy Warhol said:

“When they dig up our culture they will find the Campbell’s Soup can.” Tj believes they will find storage enclaves with classic cars, squirreled away by boomer fanatics and remnants of car components everywhere. The automobile was invented just at the turn of the twentieth century. This machine transformed the landscape and the living patterns of the world. The impact has been dramatic. The time period for this phenomena is now winding

down as fossil fuel use is not sustainable

long term.Soon it must end and we will find

differentways to manage transportation. 

Artist Statement     Thomas Aitken
I depict modern phenomena in allegory, through sculpture. The works are always tied to a historical perspective on our culture. Studies tend to be portraits of form, like small sentences in a paragraph touching a larger subject. I seek to speak of our times. I believe intensely in analysis of form as the construct for offering the viewer an experience at several levels; aesthetic first, then allegorical and cultural with historic influences. Most of my work stems from the intense changes wrought by our modern machines on the human condition. The automobile is only 100 years old and it won't be here in another century. That is short in historical perspective. Yet we have centered our whole culture around these machines, changing the landscape, our habits and the environment.

I have been immensely blessed with time at the feet of Rodin, Brancusi, the deco artists, Henry Moore and a number of master design sculptors from the automobile industry in which I once worked. I hope you pause, ponder and enjoy these works.

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Car Chase - The 09 entry for ArtPrize Grand Rapids.

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.

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

Tj works on three different themes but all with an automotive root. Find out more about sculpture.

Theme 1: Impact Series From the auto culture's powerful alteration of human society. These studies, in many scales and materials, are from an alliteration, a commentary on American dependency on the automobile. There are three modules to this series.

Figurative forms -studies for Major Impact

Major Impact Installation

Finally, the pure metaphorical illustration of the effects of the car on us humans has been a springboard to wonderful figurative studies. My massive 50 Hudson looked so heavy, like a stone tossed to our planet, skipping along creating marks on the earth and finally splashing to a halt, displacing the original environment, pushing the ground in front of it and spraying people aside to new locations. The figures become fluid, and the impact of the automobile transforms them. When you look down through the ages no object has created so much change on the planet as the auto. The blip in history is miniscule but the impact great. And it has happened quickly unraveling us from the landscape.

  Major Impact- Installation rendering (ongoing) car, cement figures, landscaping 35ftX 15ftX 7ft

Theme 2: The Nikes

Abstract portraits of vehicles The Nikes refer to ancient sculptures found by archeologists. Constructed on three scales: Monumental (life size cast stone -pictured above), Pedestal (about 30" castings) and Maquette.

Road Rocket (bronze)

57 Descending A Switchback

My first series, the "Nikes" speaks to the found art object from the past. These pedestal mounted designs capture the design essence of our antiques with many components missing. They are trophies recognizable as venerable objects from the conquering culture of the car. The intense focus on form language used in auto design has been condensed into new pieces with the original bits carefully preserved for viewing.

Theme 3: The OverHeads

Modern American Tribal Worship Art "What's in Your Worship?"

The "OverHeads" series was my tithe at the beginning of my new sculpture period. These odd faces deal with tribal worship traditions, OUR tribe, the early 21st century Americans. One Hundred years of mass production and technical invention has made our society. We worship things, events, and have a strange delusion that modernity has dispensed with spiritual condition. But the ancient struggles are the same. Our modern masks created by the deluge of stuff around us, and our mass produced focus barely hide our sub-dermal longing and anxiety.
These car parts that consumed my life for over a decade spoke of modern spiritual conditions. As I worked in the studio, statements about conditions became more important than the objects. Some turned into performances and animated presentation. The book is forth coming as a meditation piece when the funds are available. My hope is that you can identify with these conditions and note thin masks of your own that prevent a spiritual life to flourish in you.       What's in your Worship?

Movie Clip: Embarassment & Anger Tempered with Self-Pity mobile