Camera Van

# 181

In the 1970s and 1980s a number of isolated individuals began creating art cars. The city's earliest example was a dirt-filled pickup in North Berkeley that grew vegetables and flowers. The Cloud Car is another early example that is still seen on the street. Ron Dolce remember seeing VW bugs with a key projecting from the back. About the same time Dolce began his journey, Harrod Blank started metamorphosing a VW bug into what eventually became an encrusted collage of symbolic memorabilia, the Oh My God! Car. Blank's obsession with art cars led him to produce two stunning photography books and two videos. He is an acknowledge leader of the art car movement, if such a populist art can be said to have a leader. The Camera Van is Blank's greatest work. He is standing on the van, camera in hand, next to Coleena Hake, creator of the Doll Car. It began when Blank tried unsuccessfully to capture viewers' initial reactions to his first art car. He had a dream about a car covered with cameras that would provoke and record viewers' reactions. It took two years and some advice from Ron Dolce to turn the dream into the triumph of the Camera Van. The vehicle is amazing to see on the street, and it just might be recording your reaction.