The Collision Project, by Gerhard Marx and Clare Loveday, lecturers at the Wits School of Arts, is a theatrical experience and a spectacular installation but also a concert for string instruments that took place last week in Johannesburg. In this case however, the vibration of strings were transferred into the body of an automobile wreck through cello and violin fragments grafted onto the rusted vehicle.

Measured cello and violin scrolls and tail pieces are grafted on to the car, and long strings of unwaxed dental floss trail out of its interior. From these, Loveday creates a musical soundscape that chips at fragments of the car’s past, rearranging them into new patterns and mental mosaics, pulling out from the vehicle’s interior the story of its life, making it animate.

Performed by Vusi Ndebele, Sisekelo Pila and Barry Sherman.

Via at.Joburg (which has more images of the performance) and Business day.

More funky wrecked cars: Craig Fisher’s Misdemeanours. And unexpected musical instruments: a house!