Detroit News    August 2001

 Honk if you love the Crashmobile

By: Joy Hakanson Colby

If you spot a 1990 Dodge Caravan painted rainbow colors and with a giant eye on its backside, you’re looking at the Crashmobile.  It’s Detroit’s newest gimmick for whipping up public interest in art.

            This flamboyant vehicle decorated by a New York graffiti artist known as Crash (aka John Matos) serves two purposes.  It will be the official car for the Museum of New Art (MONA), opening in mid-September in the Book Building, 1249 Washington Blvd., Detroit.  Also, it calls attention to Crash’s current one-man exhibit (through Aug. 26) at the C-Pop Gallery, 4160 Woodward, Detroit.

            MONA’s director Jef Bourgeau, who owned the van before he turned it over to the museum, has been driving it since Crash finished the paint job last Thursday.

            “It’s an attention getter,” Bourgeau says.  “People honk at me on the freeway and cops have been following me.”

            For his part, Crash says spray painting the van in the gallery courtyard was like old times.  He left his graffiti marks on New York’s cars from the mid-1970’s to 1981.  Why did he stop?  “You get so you can’t run anymore,” he says. “You have to be young and fast to outrun the police.” 

            Bourgeau hopes the Crashmobile will be the first of a fleet of art cars decorated by artists connected to MONA.

            “Other cities have been showing fiberglass cows, sheep, pigs or polar bears that artists have transformed,” he says. “It seems fitting that Detroit should have art cars traveling our roads.”