The image of cars and trains zooming along elevated, crisscrossing roadways and tracks and hulking…read moreskyscrapers rising up out of a dense cityscape have been fixtures of the dystopian imagination ever since Fritz Lang, in his 1927 silent movie classic, Metropolis, combined grand scale and modern malaise in a way that has indelibly cast the worst of what's to come in urban terms.
For this reason, it would be hard not to hark back to Lang's work; but, Chris Burden, additionally, has also deliberately referenced Lang's masterpiece by name. This might be a dubious (and even a failed) move by an artist out to score cheap points if Metropolis II, in its mass of fabricated steel, aluminum, wood, and plastic weren't, in actuality, such a dead-on reminder of Lang's cinematic original.
Although Metropolis II is a sculpture, it is a kinetic one (complete with a flow of traffic and frenetic movements that dramatize its message very purposefully) and that, unquestionably, reveals its essence much more than a static presence ever could.
When all of the switches have been turned on and its more than 1,000 miniature cars zip by on its 18 roadways that curl around an assortment of skyscrapers and buildings, Chris Burden's sculpture becomes a visual wonder to behold. Magnetically powered and traveling at 240 scale miles per hour (a ridiculous speed that makes it difficult for the eyes to follow), the cars, amazingly, do not crash into each other or sit helplessly in an immense traffic jam (as in some sort of future "carmageddon"). Instead, there is a gapless fluidity to the breakneck movements. The lone train, pulsing by at a much reduced speed, provides a calming baseline.
Given its sheer size and intricate design, awe starts to inevitably creep in as one walks around the huge contraption. Who would not marvel at its inner workings? Who can avoid trying to discern how it is pieced together or not gawk at the various levels of roadways and tracks to admire their spellbinding juxtaposition, metallic hues, the dazzling colors of the model buildings, or at the beautiful multi-tiered components of the skyscrapers? On a mezzanine level, museum goers can even view Metropolis II from above (as if doing a traffic report).
Metropolis II is, supposedly, Chris Burden's vision of what Los Angeles might look like in five to ten years (with a burst of infrastructure and a network of even more freeways elevated above street-level and with what Burden describes as driverless cars that only carry passengers). Driverless technology already exists; but, Burden sees this technology being exponentially exploited to create seamless, coordinated high speed travel that would end all gridlock. Unlike Lang's vision, Burden's vision of a future Metropolis is less dystopian if for no other reason than the fact that L.A.'s ongoing traffic headaches are seemingly solved.
It is a hopeful vision that Fritz Lang, in all likelihood, would have understood...even if he never did frustratingly endure rush hour traffic on the 405.
