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Liz Cohen’s Trabantimino in Detroit

March 27, 2013

Liz Cohen Rio Grande Repair, 2012 C-print 50 x 60 inches Edition of 5
Liz Cohen’s Rio Grande Repair

Ballroom alum Liz Cohen‘s Tex Mex video installation will be on display at MOCAD from April 10-28 as part of Art X Detroit. The installation is part of Bodywork, Cohen’s continuing documentation around the Trabantimino, the vehicle she created by hybridizing an East German Trabant with a 1970s Chevrolet El Camino lowrider. Cohen’s work was featured as part of 2011’s Autobody group exhibition at Ballroom Marfa, and Tex Mex focuses on the drive she took across Far West Texas in the Trabantimino. Three photographs from this road trip can be viewed as part of Ballroom’s Limited Editions program: Rio Grande Repair (pictured above), Bird Hannah and Ranch Road 2810/Pinto Canyon Road.

From the Art X Detroit release:

TEX MEX by Liz Cohen
A three-channel HD video installation at MOCAD, TEX MEX documents the test drive of the Trabantimino in the south Texas desert on a road leading to the Mexican border. TEX MEX is part of an eight-year project called BODYWORK in which acclaimed artist Cohen apprenticed with automotive technicians to create the Trabantimino, a car that transforms from East German Trabant to American El Camino through the hydraulic technology commonly found in lowriders. Cohen simultaneously converted her body into one worthy of a car-show bikini model, making BODYWORK a celebration of subcultures.

Read more about Cohen in this excellent 2011 profile from Bad at Sports.