Cadillac Ranch, Installation artwork in Amarillo, United States.
Cadillac Ranch is an installation made from ten Cadillac models half-buried in the ground beside Interstate 40 near Amarillo in the United States. The vehicles stand in a row and display different model years from the late forties to the early sixties.
Ant Farm, formed by architects Chip Lord and Doug Michels with art student Hudson Marquez, installed ten Cadillacs nose-down in 1974 on land owned by Amarillo patron Stanley Marsh 3, who funded the project. The row originally stood in a wheat field east of the city; in 1997 a local contractor moved it about two miles west to a cow pasture beside Interstate 40 as Amarillo grew.
The upright cars carry layers of visitor graffiti accumulated over years, creating a canvas that shifts constantly. Each person adds their own message or artwork to the metal surfaces, turning the automobiles into a collective piece shaped by thousands of hands.
Access is through a short walk from the Interstate 40 frontage road, and the site can be visited any time without admission. Visitors who bring their own spray cans are welcome to leave their mark on the car bodies.
The cars were bought for a few hundred dollars each, and during five days in June 1974 the three Ant Farm members dug ten holes of identical depth and angle with an excavator. Only the hubcaps were fixed on; nothing else was reinforced or protected.
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