File on Motor Transgression (2012)

In 2001, Matthew Cusick began digitally cataloging car chase scenes from 20th century American cinema as an extension of his paintings and map collages. Appropriating footage from as early as the Keystone Cops, Cusick assembled File on Motor Transgression by condensing hundreds of car chases into a navigation of the American landscape throughout cinematic history. Using the anti-establishment film Vanishing Point (1971) as his original source of inspiration, Cusick's video montage brings into sharp focus the car as a symbol of escapism and nihilistic fantasy. Within the short duration of File on Motor Transgression, Cusick connects disparate boundaries of time and location, fantasy and reality, into a meticulously crafted collage of moving images.