There is nothing more American than the automobile. It offers mobility, privacy and the pleasure of ownership. For Chip Lord, the automobile has been an object of distracted desire since 1974 when he placed ten Cadillacs nose-down in the Texas prairie and called them "Cadillac Ranch." A feature-length videotape, Motorist continues the trajectory of this American icon, the high-speed bearer of perpetual motion. The star of Motorist is a gray 1962 Ford Thunderbird. A beautifully proportioned piece of machinery, the early sixties T-Bird possessed both the elegance and futurism that gave wing to so many dreams of flight. Behind the wheel, Richard, the Motorist (played with glib rawness by Richard Marcus), is heading for Los Angeles to hand this "classic" car over to its new owner, a Japanese auto importer. The trip from New Orleans is a funeral procession of one as Richard reminisces about the formative influence of the automobile. After all, he's a third generation Ford man. Lord's first sustained narrative employs a chilling metaphor for its world of diminished expectations. Glamorous footage from fifties promotional films and magazine ads find their mocking counterpart in a stretch of highway riddled with two-bit towns, a dinosaur park and the London Bridge. If the automobile promised a lavish journey through some boundless autopia, Motorist navigates a vast cultural cul-de-sac. The T-Bird's ultimate sale as the hard currency of American myth suggests it's already on a road to nowhere. Chip Lord's '62 T-Bird will be on display in the UAM's Sculpture Garden the day of the screening.