Car Crash (Wipe Out on Pacific Coast Highway) 1984

Editor: Right now we’re looking at Carlos Almaraz’s "Car Crash (Wipe Out on Pacific Coast Highway)," a mixed-media piece from 1984. It's...intense! The colors are so vivid, but the scene is unsettling. All that fire! How do you even begin to interpret something like this? Curator: Almaraz isn’t just showing us a car crash; he’s giving us a glimpse into the underbelly of the Californian dream. It’s like, what happens when paradise goes up in flames, you know? The bright, almost fauvist colors, that dreamy Pacific coast… juxtaposed with such destruction. What’s burning here? Editor: Is it supposed to be literal, the cars, the highway… or more symbolic? Curator: Both, I think. Almaraz lived that SoCal life. He saw its beauty, its freedom. But he also felt its tensions, its fleeting nature. Those almost cartoonish flames? They scream "mortality," "loss." But the ocean's still there, right? Enduring. Constant. Like life keeps chugging along, even amidst the wreckage. It makes you think: What do we salvage from the wreckage? And what gets left behind? It seems so tied to his own life too, doesn't it? Almaraz faced some profound challenges; do you see echoes of that reflected in this burning landscape? Editor: I do now. The ocean offering a sense of hope amid destruction is actually really beautiful. Curator: It is, isn't it? Art's funny, the way it speaks to us across time. I keep thinking, the Pacific Coast Highway--a symbol of freedom, adventure--turned into a scene of utter devastation. And then that horizon line... I almost missed it amongst the flames at first. Almaraz packed so much meaning into this deceptively simple vista. Editor: Absolutely! Now that I see the contrast you pointed out between destruction and endurance, it gives me a completely different understanding.