VIDEO PHOTOS The Back to the Futurama Hummer Humvee

This ironic art piece is part of 33-year-old artist Jeremy Dean’s project “Back to the Futurama” and debuted at the 2010 Pulse Art Fair in New York City. Dean, with the help of Slick’s Garage in Palmetto, Florida, fabricated the rolling criticism of American culture, consumerism and lack of environmental activism out of a perfectly “good” Hummer H2, using welding equipment to flip the hood and completely remove the engine. What is left is a gas-guzzling hay-chewing Sports Utility Vehicle Wagon with 382 2 horsepower!

Here is a video of the Hummer as it first arrived in the garage and the first stages of dismantling it:

Jeremy Dean blogged about the entire process at backtothefuturama.blogspot.com and he mentions that the idea was inspired by the Hoover Carts of the 1920s and ’30s, which were converted Model A and Model T that “utilized the axles, springs, and wheels to convert it into a horse-drawn vehicle.”

Dean says, “I was fascinated by the Hoover Cart story and the image I saw in my mind of the re-imagined vehicle, this ultimate coping mechanism, and it seemed to me then, as it does now, a monument to the absurd, as only something utilitarian done in prolonged crisis can be.”

A more finished promo video for the project with some high-falutin’ praise and a shot of the horse-drawn Humvee in action:

After being on display at the 2010 Pulse Art Fair, Dean took the ‘Back to the Futurama’ Hummer on a “sneak art attack” ride in Central Park!

Dean summed up the Central Park experience this way: “Needless to say we turned a few heads, drew a crowd, got kicked out of the Park, and made a ton of New Yorkers smile… it was a good time!”

This is one of those great ideas that just needed someone with the gumption to pull it off and pull it off right, and Jeremy Dean pulled it off and pulled it off right! It’s like the vehicle Banksy would drive! And if he’s looking to recoup the money he spent on the Humvee, all Dean needs to do is give Budweiser a call and after some red paint and a bunch of Clydesdales, the ‘Back to the Futurama’ will be an automatic Super Bowl commercial! (You heard it here first!)

Ah, what the heck! I couldn’t resist. Now, you saw it here first! (I can’t seem to get the word “Humweiser” out of my head.)

One more parting shot of Hum, Hum on the range:

Photos: Barcroft/Fame Pictures (Humweiser: starcasm.net)
Subscribe to Starcasm by Email