Porn sites love Ballard; I swear our site statistics turn up the oddest links. Enough to make a clean-living chap like me faint from shock.
A hardcore fetish site called Goregasm linked to our ‘JG Ballard: Live in London‘ article. Upon following the link back, I discovered a corner of the web that was fairly ‘out there’ to say the least. I’ll leave you to judge their intentions from their site title, but I will tell you that they worship our friend Ballard as ‘Supreme Crash Lord J.G. Ballard’.
Anyway, through Goregasm I came across the CrashBonsai site. I know this link was bandied about the net a couple of years back but it’s worth another look.
According to Goregasm
“To Crashman’s great satisfaction, the serious psychiatric disorder known as Crash Obsession is spreading rapidly worldwide. Not only do we have the great book and unforgettable movie CRASH (“beyond the bounds of depravity”) from Supreme Crash Lord JG Ballard and David Cronenberg, some people are even getting into Bonsai Crashing, the ancient Oriental art of crashing model cars into little tiny trees. And you thought the Crashman was weird, huh? If this idea branches out to include small planes, there’s a definite market opportunity here. Hmmmm…”
By the way, CrashBonsai is not hardcore or porn (although it probably is fetishistic) and so I can recommend the site as good, clean family fun. I’m off to purchase one of these quite clearly Ballardian mini-sculptures, and maybe I can persuade this guy to produce versions of the pranged 1961 Lincoln Continental and Porsche Spyder that are so dear to the heart of all true Ballard/Cronenberg fans.
From the CrashBonsai blurb:
“CrashBonsai is the creation of John Rooney, an artist who is torn between the desire to create and destroy. Recently, he has been making bonsai plants, and combining them with model cars and trucks which he has creatively smashed and melted, to create “CrashBonsai,” little living car crash sculptures.
You’ll find a variety of vehicles in crashed cars, their scales and dimensions listed. Each model is unique, and individually disassembled, cut, melted, filed, smashed, then reassembled to replicate a real fender bender. Some models might work perfectly with a bonsai you already have, but generally you should expect to create a new bonsai around the vehicles, often placing the tree more to the side of a pot to make room for the vehicle. No passengers have been injured in CrashBonsai accidents, although some drivers have reported a brief, even euphoric loss of consciousness.”