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MSCHF Bends Lexus SUVs Into Surreal Sculptures for New York Exhibition
The Brooklyn art collective MSCHF has turned two Lexus SUVs into warped sculptures — one looped into a circle, the other twisted along its length — for a free exhibition in New York.
By Eleanor Ellington · 5 min read
The Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF has unveiled two surreal sculptures built from the forms of the electric Lexus RZ 450e and the plug-in hybrid RX 450h+, bending one into a closed loop and twisting the other along its length. The works were commissioned by Lexus for an exhibition called MOTOMORPHOSIS, which opens at Chelsea Industrial in New York on 24 September and runs until 26 September. Admission is free to anyone who RSVPs.
The first piece, called Circle Car, takes the shape of an RZ 450e and is bent until its nose effectively meets its tail. Lexus describes the result as «driving infinitely round», though the phrase is doing considerable work given that the vehicle is no longer capable of conventional motion. The second, Twisted Car, is based on the RX 450h+ and has been subjected to what Lexus calls «dramatic longitudinal torsion» — a description that translates, less delicately, into an SUV that looks as though someone grabbed each end and wrung it out like a wet towel.
Neither sculpture is a purely abstract fabrication. Both contain genuine Lexus parts, and the company describes them as sculptural doubles of the production vehicles. Normal examples of the RZ 450e and RX 450h+ will be displayed alongside the distorted versions at the exhibition, allowing visitors to compare the standard machines with their manipulated counterparts.
The idea behind the project comes from the digital world rather than the automotive one. In 3D animation, designers can stretch, twist and distort objects almost without restriction. MSCHF wanted to see what those same transformations would look like when applied to something firmly rooted in the physical world — in this case, two road-going SUVs with real engineering beneath their bodywork.
MSCHF has not, it should be said, taken two functioning Lexuses and fed them through a gigantic industrial torture device. The sculptures are purpose-built objects rather than ruined production cars, which will come as a relief to anyone who winces at the thought of a perfectly serviceable vehicle meeting an angle grinder. The collective is known for provocative, internet-native projects, and the commission fits that pattern: a familiar object, pushed into an unfamiliar shape, presented as art.
Lexus, for its part, has attached a warning to the project. The company notes that the special project vehicles contain non-Lexus components that «may void warranty, negatively impact safety, and not be street legal». The disclaimer is a legal formality, but it also serves as a neat punchline. Even after turning a Lexus into a giant automotive pretzel, there remains enough ambiguity for the lawyers to stick with «may».
The warning is unlikely to deter visitors to Chelsea Industrial, where the emphasis is on spectacle rather than roadworthiness. The exhibition places the two sculptures in the same space as the production RZ and RX, framing the warped forms as a comment on the gap between digital manipulation and physical manufacturing. In 3D software, a car can be bent into a circle in seconds. In metal, glass and rubber, the same transformation becomes a labour of engineering and a deliberate departure from function.
For Lexus, the commission offers a way to present its electrified range in a context removed from showroom conventions. The RZ 450e and RX 450h+ are the technical starting points, but the exhibition is not a product launch in any ordinary sense. It is a collaboration with an art collective whose reputation rests on taking familiar objects and making them strange.
MOTOMORPHOSIS runs for three days only, from 24 to 26 September, at Chelsea Industrial in New York. Entry is free with an RSVP. Visitors will be able to see the Circle Car, the Twisted Car and the unmodified vehicles they were derived from — and to judge for themselves whether a Lexus bent into a loop counts as sculpture, engineering, or simply a very expensive way to make a point about the limits of the physical world.
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