Artist Dave Cole creates art projects that explores industrialization and national pride. He repurposes industrial machines, making them perform unexpected tasks, some of which are cute.
For "The Music Box," the artist dismantled a gigantic 22,000 lb steamroller and converted the flattening area into a music box. The piece, commissioned by the Cleveland Institute of Art and developed with help from Ohio CAT, can play the National Anthem. Hear her sing in the first video below.
The artist also converted the chassis of an excavator into beauty by fitting it with 24 tuned jack hammers. The machine is now basically a 1:16 scale model of a musical instrument for the installation "Jackhammer Orchestra."
The next project isn't as big but still gets the point across. His project "Singer" takes its name from the sewing machine brand, and surprise, it's a sewing machine. However rather than sewing up patches, it searches the internet and repeats a series of queries related to its own work. Then, it prints its results in binary code, constantly changing the rate in which paper is fed under its needle. It performs the task for the sake of nothing.
Finally, the second video below depicts "The Knitting Machine." For this project, the artist placed two excavators across from one another. Each machine wields a 20-foot-long knitting needle that together hold an American flag. As you can see, his pieces look at the world from a different lens. In showing these large machines doing odd tasks, he reveals that industrialization is a myth that can be distorted.
[via Designboom]
