Most
Advanced Horse-Drawn Carriage - world record set by Jeremy
Dean
NEW YORK, USA -- New York–based artist Jeremy
Dean has transformed an iconic Hummer into a Horsedrawn
Carriage named “Back to the Futurama" - setting the new
world record for the Most
Advanced Horse-Drawn Carriage (and the
Greenest Hummer, too).
Photo: Jeremy Dean with his completed
“Back to the Futurama”. (enlarge
photo)
Mr. Dean put down $15,000 of his own
money for the sacrificed H2 and dubbed the result "Back
to the Futurama," a play on both the Depression-era practice
of hooking up cars to horses once gas became too expensive
(known as "Hoover carts," a dig at Herbert Hoover) and GM's
Futurama exhibit at the 1939 World's Fair.
“Back
to the Futurama” is a protest against unsustainable
lifestyle and a rolling reminder of what could happen when
the oil runs out, or “a monument to America’s consumption,
greed and arrogance,” he says on his blog.
“I am making my own satirical prediction
of the future,” he explains on the blog. “Unless we come up
with alternative fuel sources and rethink our reliance on
a hyper inflated consumption based economy; we may be left
with no other options than to hook our cars up to a horse.”
Mr. Dean’s Hummer was inspired by “Hoover carts,”
named for Herbert Hoover, old car bodies once pulled by mules
and horses in the rural south because their owners couldn’t
afford gasoline. (enlarge
photo)
Mr. Dean said he bought the Hummer
in Orlando for $15,000 and worked with Slick’s
Garage in Palmetto, Fla., to modify it.
He removed the engine and turned the hood and
grille upside down, then cleverly reinstalled them to form
an elevated coachman’s seat. Mr. Dean said the vehicle retains
its chrome rims, navigation system and DVD player.
Mr. Dean said on his blog that he is interested
in exploring “contemporary issues by deconstructing and recontextualizing
iconic symbols to gain perspective and understanding about
the world in which we live.”
