Artist Project / Your Standard

­In 1989, I bought a standard white Toyota pickup truck. I had a group of friends that all had the same pickup, and it felt to us like some sort of northern California socialist standard-issue vehicle—a no-frills utility truck for protohippies, progressive suburban kids, and sculptors with left-wing leanings. When the earthquake hit Santa Cruz, our chimney crumbled and rolled off the sloped roof of our house, demolishing the truck’s cab—I dro­ve around without a windshield for a few days and then got it fixed. In 2001, the truck was totaled in a hit-and-run in front of my loft in Brooklyn. I sold it to the scrap yard for fifty dollars. A couple of years later, back on the West Coast, I bought the same standard white Toyota pickup truck.

Like chalk on a blackboard, the truck makes a white line that criss-crosses the country. The equation TIME + DISTANCE + MASS = EXPERIENCE is perfectly exemplified by my relationship to this truck—its various travels and constantly shifting load somehow define me and my parameters. It feels like I may always own a standard white Toyota pickup truck. It has become my standard, and now it can become Your Standard.

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MATERIALS
Straight edge
A coin (a US quarter is just right)
X-acto knife
Glue
Paper clips

DIRECTIONS
Draw on the blank surface, customizing Your Standard.
With the X-acto knife and straight edge, cut through on the solid lines.
Use the coin as a guide to cut around the wheels.
Score the dotted lines with the paper clip and straight edge.
Fold, glue, and attach the tabs; hold with paper clips while glue is drying.



Once Your Standard is assembled, please photograph it and send the image to this e-mail address. Contributions will be posted here.