Cargate Sculpture/Signage

Client: Iceland Academy of the Arts
When: 2007

The 'cargate' or end-of-the-world-victory gate as it was called by some was a collaboration I did with Sigurður Oddsson and Guðmundur Hallgrímsson. Initially, we were assigned to design signage and other promotion material for the 2007 Iceland Academy of the Arts graduation show. Much emphasis was put on the signage and promotion for that years show, because it was held in an unusual place, a row of old potato storage shacks, turned into an art gallery - and seeing as the graduation show is one of the best attended shows every year in Reykjavík, the new location needed to be made known to the public.

Through some elaborate process of thought, the conclusion was to make some sort of sculpture by the largest road in the city, and make it out of cars. How we would accomplish this, was not clear to us in the beginning, but with many favors from various people we knew and didn't know, It came to be. The car theme was then also applied to color schematically show each department's exhibition space and we also placed two cars right by the road to be sure to attract attention, as they looked like they had undergone a serious accident.

The sculpture made the cover of Iceland's morning paper the day after it rose, on the day of the opening, and made the 7'o'clock news two weeks later when some unknown pranksters set it on fire and the whole city's fire department was called out in the middle of the night and it had to be disassembled and destroyed. Our goal was to attract attention and I believe we accomplished that fairly well.

The cargate was assebled for free by Hringrás, a waste management company.

It had an effect like the leaning tower of Pisa, some people were reluctant to want to walk or drive through the gate.

The exhibition spaces for the various departments were color coded with car doors, decoded by a map available in the entrance of every space.