You have to look at Antonio Berni’s 1965 sculpture El pájaro amenazador (“Threatening Bird”) for a few seconds to realize that most of its non-organic elements are old car parts, like a steering wheel serving as weird, industrial diadem.
The bird is part of the Argentinian artist’s Monstruos cósmicos (“Cosmic Monsters”) collection, and it’s strangely awesome and frightening for a suspended bunch of wood, bronze, iron, steel, wicker, hay, sponge, plastic, enamel and wooden branches.
It would make for a fabulous hood ornament. Preferably life-sized. If you’re in Buenos Aires, you can see it at the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires, right next door to Chrysler’s amazing secret rooftop test track from 1928.
In fact, if you choose your angle correctly, you can see the bird and the building at the same time. How’s that for an overload of wild car art and infrastructure?