It was a ‘special experience’ to work every morning in the Amsterdam zoo next to the ostriches, says Thomas Thwaites (41), with the sound of ‘singing gibbons’ and ‘noisy conversations between seals’ in the background. With his shoes still full of mud, the English artist presents his work in the making from the past few weeks in Artis: a Flintstones-like car chassis made of woven willow. A number of children also spontaneously cooperated during their visit to the zoo. ‘The braiding technique was labour-intensive, but fortunately not that difficult.’
It’s the start of what should become a completely ‘harmless car’. The ultimate goal: the car must be able to drive 15-20 kilometers per hour with its family in it, without causing any damage to anyone or anything. And then Thwaites not only thinks of indirect environmental damage, but also of impact in the most literal sense: he dreams of very wide tires made of dandelion rubber, with which even a snail can be run over unharmed. A video of similar tires with which you can drive over people already stirred up a lot of attention among the children who visited Thwaites’ workshop in Artis: they enthusiastically applied to be run over by him.
Under the name Machine Wilderness, eight artists will have their own studio in Artis for a few weeks from mid-March to the end of June to work on a project. These projects have one thing in common: they investigate the relationship between people, nature and technology. The artists regularly hold open studios, give workshops and guided tours and present their work at the end of June in the Groote Museum van Artis and in the Amstelpark. This one artist-in-residences take place under the name Machine Wilderness.
Machine Wilderness
The artist-in-residence project Machine Wilderness will be concluded on 24 June with an ‘art-science fair’ in the Groote Museum of Artis. Many participating artists will be present, including Ivan Henriques, Ian Ingram and Špela Petrič. They explain their work on the basis of conversations and experiments. On 25 and 26/6 and 1-3/7 their work will also be presented at Zone2Source in the Amstelpark in Amsterdam. Thomas Thwaites’ car can be seen at both locations.
For Thwaites his time has already come to an end, the next artists are about to start. ‘In a strange way’ it made perfect sense, says Thwaites, to start working on his harmless car in a zoo. ‘This work is about my struggle with the harmful effects of the stuff we humans design, produce and use. In Artis, animals from all over the world are brought together in one place. Together they represent, as it were, the animal life on earth that has to suffer from those effects. Many endangered species and other animals are having a hard time, among other things, because of one of the most harmful objects that man has ever designed: the car.’
Thwaites has often shown himself to be a lover of almost impossible experiments in his work. In the first instance, they are often thought experiments, he says, which arise from a ‘slumbering feeling of discomfort’. That’s how he decided for his earlier Toaster Project (2010) to single-handedly build a toaster, from scratch, using crude oil and metals from disused mines in England (on display in the permanent collection of the Groote Museum van Artis).
“Making the plastic housing turned out to be extremely difficult,” he sighs, showing a photo of a melted toaster. By actually implementing such a rather crazy idea, and also documenting the route to it in detail, he made clear what a toaster ‘costs’: what enormous efforts and environmental costs are required for the ‘simple’ luxury of a toasted sandwich.
In front of GoatMan (2016), another famous experiment, Thwaites, who was having a hard time at the time, decided to take a break from modern humanity. He joined a herd of goats in the Alps for a few days. He moved on special prostheses, ate grass and tried to digest it with the help of an artificial stomach. Like his earlier project, it resulted in a witty book in which there is a surprising amount to learn – not least about humans.
Thwaites knows, of course, that his completely harmless car is impossible. It’s about the attempt, the way to get there and the question of what compromises he has to make in order to keep his car running. What damage can be avoided? Which not? And how much damage do we actually consider acceptable?
In front of GoatMan Thwaites received an Ig Nobel Prize in 2016, the prize awarded for research that first makes you laugh and then makes you think. Perhaps this car has a good chance again. When he’s finished. Because how do you make a harmless engine? Thwaites: ‘Obviously a lot still needs to be done.’