The Human Body and the Automobile

These two images appeared on separate pages as an advertisement for an auto manufacturer. I saw the ad in a Home and Garden magazine. The first page shows the people arranged in the shape of the auto. There is a shadow outline, like a reflective pool, beneath the figures, indicating what it is you are looking at. I cut that portion of the image out to make room for the next scene. Turn the page and you see the actual automobile.

At first, looking at the people, I thought they actually were making a living statue of themselves. My wife, who is an artist and has a keen eye, corrected me. These people had not created a statue figure with their bodies. "The lady at the bottom would be sagging," my wife told me. No, these people were all lying on the floor. The photo was taken from above. Only way it could be done. The dancers, or perhaps better stated, the acrobats, had made something more like a painting out of their bodies. "Ingenious,' I said, sucking in my breath.

My first impression was that. The whole idea was an act of creative ingenuity. But then I got to thinking about this kind of creativity. The whole idea of using people to imitate the shape of an automobile shows me how deeply interconnected the automobile and the human body have become. The auto has been around for over 100 years now. At first, the earliest shapes were similar to horse drawn wagons. People sat in them, actually on them. But gradually the style of the auto became enclosed and more streamline, incorporating aerodynamic principles.

And now, the style of the common auto suggests something truly alive, the front ends look like the mouths of imaginary creatures. What used to be fenders now look more like the haunches of this very same creature. Little by little, the auto has come to look like an outer skin, or a garment worn by the owner/driver of the vehicle, that offers some kind of psychological/personality representation of the 'wearer' who is barely seen behind the wheel. The car is the owner, so to speak.

And now, it seems, a final concept is being explored through this advertisement that has appeared in a Home and Garden magazine. I can't imagine what other magazines this same ad has appeared in as well. Now, it is the human body itself that is creating the vehicle. The true symbiotic relationship has come to reveal itself to us. And it has done so as an art form.

Now over the years, I have grown used to seeing cars depicted on TV ads in a much different manner. They are presented to us poor slobs as the ultimate in agressive manliness. These manly cars are shown tearing up the highway, racing across mountainous roads, making the curves at incredible speeds. They are shown climbing over rocky terrain, reaching the summit of peaks not even sherkas are capable of ascending. Or if the target audience happens to be the female of the species, the very same cars show themselves as docile family servants. They allow themselves to be filled with gaggles of screaming kids climbing in, jamming themselves inside with all their sporting paraphernalia. The women are represented merely as moms for the most part, while the men are as yet still allowed the blessed image of that fighting spirit breed from which this great and tough American city/landscape was built.

But now, everything has changed. The human body, through the generousity of performing art, has become one with the auto body. No longer does the auto reveal our hidden dreams. No longer can humanity be seen as having been technologically benefited by the creation of the automobile. If anything, it is the other way around. Humanity is the benefactor. Our bodies have become dedicated servomechanisms to the automobile. With our flesh and blood we give it its plastic/metal shape.

What to make of this, I wonder?