It was 1975. American had recently been wrung out by OPEC and gas lines. Subcompact imports were beginning to make a dent. All manner of alterna-transport was being explored, even as the nation finally extracted itself for good from The Nam.

Burden undertook work on a handmade, one-person hybrid of bicycle, automobile, and airplane. In his own words:

I set the goal of completing the car for two shows in Europe. I saw building the car as a means toward the end of driving it between galleries in Amsterdam and Paris as a performance. When I arrived in Amsterdam, I knew that the accomplishment of constructing the car had become for me the essential experience. I had already realized the most elaborate fantasy of my life. Driving the car as a performance was not important after the ordeal of bringing it into existence.

"...the most elaborate fantasy of my life." Artists in the 20th century had an intense relationship with the automobile, but probably none moreso than Burden. The ultimate installation, titled "B-Car," was exhibited in April of 1977. According to Burden, there were 120 design drawing included in the show. We'll see what we can do to track some down.

In the meantime, look forward to our next installment, when we recall Ed Ruscha, a speeding Buick, and a typewriter.

It was late April. The setting was a garage in Venice, CA, at a time when Venice was a funky sunsplashed beachside shithole full of losers and freaks and drunks and stoners and artists. A shirtless Burden—only three years removed from being shot in the arm with an actual bullet ("Shoot"), and less than a year after a self-imposed near-electrocution ("Doorway to Heaven")—lays across the back of the Bug and has his palms nailed to the sheet metal. Ouchie! The car is pushed out of the garage and the engine is run full-out for precisely two minutes. Photos are snapped. Urban legend says Burden is driven around like this, but the story is disputed and besides, there's no way the nails would have held.

The Beetle is lost to time. Burden, on the other hand, is world famous. The performance is labeled "Trans Fixed."

Tomorrow, check back when we tell the tale of Burden's 100mpg auto-bike, created in 1977. This boy had a thing for cars!