In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.(S.T. Coleridge)
It all started with a van. Well, not just any van, a 1988 Ford Econoline High-top, specifically. An eccentric museum conservator, Clarke Bedford, drove to his place of work at a museum a shiny car decorated with… pretty much anything he could find: vases, horns, graveyard spires, bicycle wheels, figurines, and chains.
VANADU
My Vanadu, Kubic Ekonoline Kan
With auto ornament filigree:
Down the sacred interstate ran
Gainst head winds measureless to man
Burns golden gas as though for free.
And not to forget the engine rod that Threw
This moving mass, this pleasure dome,
Too poor for cantaloupe or honey-dew
And milk of Paradise must eschew
To maintain this boxy home.A. Clarke Bedford
(With apologies to S. T. Coleridge)
From 2005 onwards, Clarke Bedford started transforming the house in Hyattsville, Maryland, into an art installation. Or an art space. Or, as some people call it, a Burning Man in rural Maryland. Soon, the collection had overflowed the house and spilled outside into the yard.
Out of four cars that Bedford owns, one always gets the title Vanadu.
The place, that went through several name changes — “Contempo By The Lake”, and “As-sem-blage Co-ttage” — is now called Vanadu as well, although the better way is probably to call Vanadu the whole experience of visiting the property.
Since I am no art expert nor do I have any formal education past 10 grades of Soviet school, I am pretty accepting of all art forms as long as they elicit some sort of emotions. I mean, what do I know — maybe it’s Goya, maybe it’s a no-go.
This, however, is a first place that — if you ask me to tell you what it is — I would take a pause. Is it a junk yard? Is it an endless “sustainable art” installation? Is it kitsch? I don’t know.
I guess the best way to experience this is to go there yourself.
In Vanadu did wander I, perplexed,
A vast junk-scape that left my mind quite vexed.
Confusion reigned, in twisted steel and wood,
A maze where sense of art misunderstoodVlad (with a little help of ChatGPT)
