Streaming
Video

The
Concept

Broadcast
Images
Images
& Video

Burnout 2001 took place in a large carpark at the Docklands precinct on the fringe of the Melbourne CBD. In this carpark six different cars performed a choreographed display of burnouts. A burnout is achieved when the driver spins the wheels of a car in order to leave an indelible rubber trace on the road surface.

This choreography was designed to create a forty minute spectacle that culminates in a giant drawing. The spinning tyres on the carpark surface mark the ground like charcoal sticks on a canvas. This drawing process was watched by a live audience seated around the performance ‘arena’, and on the internet around the world via a live broadcast involving five digital cameras and a vision mixing desk.

During the performance (and at the conclusion) a photographer took a series of four pictures of the drawing from a cherry picker positioned directly overhead. These photos were cabled down to a PC and a printing station where copies were made en masse and distributed to members of the audience as the performance took place. At the end of the performance members of the audience were invited to have them autographed by the car drivers.

The event was borne out of a fascination with the gestures of territorial sovereignty and machismo situated wherever virgin asphalt lies. The project has become an amalgam of differing cultural agendas, i.e.: streetcars, sport, and high art dance and painting. This amalgam seeks to identify a shift in the paradigm of art appreciation and to acknowledge an audience situated outside their normal cultural realm.

Left & Above: Artist's 3D Impression.                

Build it and
they will
Come.

...and art,
big art
and music
and smoke
and noise
and stars performing.