Artist creates wrecked Mercedes-benz with 12,000 mirrors

Constructed with nearly 12,000 individual pieces of reflective stainless steel, New York-based artist Jordan Griska creates an incredible model of a Mercedes-Benz S550.

Griska who describes his work saying that it "increases awareness of objects' pasts and symbolic qualities as they relate to American identity in order to invite viewers to imagine alternative futures," highlights both luxury and mortality from a removed perspective in this piece, "Wrecked."

"Wrecked", a replica of the original Benz that the owner had crashed (according to a former studio assistant) was originally conceived in glass. The project then moved into steel and was created without the assistance of 3D scanning and more than a year and a half of careful research and engineering went into moving the piece from digital model to finished artwork.

While researching the work, Griska referenced Andy Warhol’s series of car crash prints, connecting the sterility of his work’s stainless steel to that of a lithoprint. The reflective sculpture is currently in a private collection outside of Philadelphia but was on public view for a short period at Pier 9 with Philadelphia Contemporary.

The artist himself expresses hope that "people can see this work and be inspired by it, and be horrified by it," much like the American dream itself as we, in Fitzgerald's words."