Cadillac Ranch and Ant Farm

[Clewisiii]

Cadillac Ranch may seem cool, but the entire thing and the Ant Farm art group behind it did not do it out of any type of respect.

They tried to make art that rejected consumerism and the Cadillac place and prestige.


Most of the cars were bought from salvage yards. But years ago I saw a video they had made of them purchasing one of the cars used off of someone's front lawn. It was a grey late 40s or very early 50s car. But I think 40s.

They made the deal while filming it. The seller was talking about how he had taken car of the car. Then guys came out with sledge hammers and beat up the front end in front of him. Then the camera turns to the guy and asks him to comment.

I have been looking for a clip of the video again for a while now.

But you can find a video of the group driving a Cadillac through a wall of TVs.

[David Greenburg]

I found a postcard many years ago of the '59 Biarritz going through the wall of burning TV's. They called it "Media Burn." I also have a book about the Ant Farm going into detail about their various "projects" including Cadillac Ranch and Media Burn. Important to remember that in the mid-70's, when these things were happening, old Cadillacs were selling for not much more than scrap value.