Enter $CAR, the latest art project linked to the world of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and crypto to make serious waves. $CAR is the brainchild of anonymous artist Shl0ms, and it saw him and a 100-person team buy a used but perfectly functional (albeit slightly garish) Lamborghini Huracan just so they could blow it up.
It wasn’t for fun, though: the theme of destruction as a form of creation is being brought into the digital realm. The explosion was meticulously controlled, the artist tells The Block, so the vehicle wasn’t damaged beyond recognition but “physically fractionalized” into 999 pieces. Each of these pieces of wreckage were retrieved after the blast, filmed in 4K and turned into NFTs. In simpler terms, Shl0ms blew up a perfectly fine (and expensive) car to make short video NFTs of parts of the wreckage.
If this isn’t confusing enough, there is another twist: Shl0ms says that the $CAR project is “more general criticism of greed and short-termism in crypto.” Contrary to several reports out there, it’s not a “protest” against cryptocurrency but “optimism” in that it can be used for good, and not just for satisfying short-term greed. Shl0ms also says that most of the proceeds from the auction will go to an art foundation to fund future public art installations, so there goes potential criticism against him that he’s lining his pockets with the same crypto he’s claiming to be critiquing with the art project.
It’s all very convoluted and debatable, and it’s all these things on purpose, because art is meant to be divisive and disruptive. What is clear about $CAR is that it’s not the act of some random YouTuber who takes out his fancy car into the desert to damage it for clout or, at the very least, that there was nothing random about it. The project was carefully planned and designed, from the moment the car was bought (with many miles on the odo, the artist says for the same media outlet), to how the explosion was rigged, and to logistics and production.
The Huracan cost a little under $250,000, but the whole project implied costs in the vicinity of $1 million, which were divided between the anonymous investor and the artist. No word on how long the pre-production phase lasted, but Shl0ms casually mentions that, before blowing up the Huracan, they had to “rehearse” on another car.
For the rest of the world, those of us who can’t be bothered about NFTs and crypto, or owning NFTs of videos of parts of supercars damaged on purpose to make said videos, well, there’s not much left to say. Except that, when the 888 NFTs hit the auction block, Shl0ms will release the full video of the blast. A teaser is available below.
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— ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? (@SHL0MS) February 17, 2022
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— ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? (@SHL0MS) February 17, 2022
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