126.125 x 584.125 in
Vinyl and hardware
Death Drive is comprised of a large banner that mimics, in format and scale, billboards used in roadway advertisements. In the center of the composition, Dean features an image of Fordlandia, a utopian city imagined by the American automobile maker Henry Ford and built in the rainforest in northern Brazil in the 1920s. The site was modeled after the Midwestern farm towns of Ford's childhood, with Western industrial production, labor, and social norms that didn’t acknowledge or correspond to the local indigenous biodiversity and culture. Despite allegedly providing health care and decent wages, Ford’s imposed cultural assimilation of Brazilian workers led to a revolt in 1930, and the settlement was abandoned shortly after.
Included in exhibition:
Off the Wall, Moody Center for the Arts
Installation view of Death Drive, Moody Center for the Arts