[ISEA2012] Artist Statement: Ruben Ortiz-Torres — High n’ Low Rider (2008)

Artist Statement

Chromogenic urethane, metal flake, hydraulics, batteries, steel, aluminum, mechanical parts from scissor lift

Building upon the tradition of modifying production automobiles into rolling, dancing sculpture with sound systems, Ruben Ortiz-Torres has modified a commercially produced scissor lift used to elevate workers, into a lowrider that also goes high. With a digitally designed front grill, chromed hydraulic system, customized sound track, and an upper basket that spins, tilts, and lifts off its base, the sculpture is a 32-foot-tall, automatic, adjustable, contemporary tribute to Constantin Brancusi’s Endless column, Egyptian obelisks, and memorial columns through the ages.

  • Ruben Ortiz-Torres, Mexico/USA, is a Mexican-born artist who has been living and working in Los Angeles since 1990. Ortiz-Torres is widely regarded as one of today’s leading Mexican artists and as an innovator in the 1980s of a specifically Mexican form of postmodernism. He teaches at the University of California, San Diego, USA. https://visarts.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/rub%C3%A9n-ortiz-torres.html