Cadillac Ranch 1974/1994

Cadillac Ranch 1974/1994

Ant Farm 
1974/1994, 16:40 min, color, sound

Description

Cadillac Ranch 1974/1994 is a document of Ant Farm's major site installation, Cadillac Ranch, which was commissioned by Texas millionaire Stanley Marsh 3. To create the work, ten Cadillacs, vintage 1948 to 1963, were buried fin-up in a field off Route 66 in Amarillo. The image is a comically subversive homage to the rise and fall of the tail-fin as an icon of postwar American consumer excess. Footage of the burial of the cars is intercut with Cadillac commercials that promote a fetishized ideal, the ultimate American Dream. A pop spectacle that parodies consumerism with a tongue-in-cheek nod to 1970's site art, the Cadillac Ranch is an ironic celebration of the "grotesque and wonderful" tail-fin as the ultimate expression of wasteful design in American culture.

Cadillac Ranch 1974/1994 combines footage shot at the 20th Anniversary party, and original material -- including rare 16mm footage of the making of the installation -- and features interviews with Ant Farm members Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez, Doug Michels, and Cadillac Ranch's patron, Stanley Marsh 3.