Culture Crash: Radical Mod at SMoCA

Just outside SMoCA’s front doors a group of local rappers spit rhymes as listeners nosh on a juxtaposed menu of Mexican fajitas and Italian meatballs.

Radical Mod the event has ended, but the experiment continues inside the halls of SMoCA.

Cohen removes the bar propping the Trabantimino’s hood open to show off its V8 engine and makes sure everyone is standing far enough back before going to the driver’s side door to work her magic. It’s plain for anyone to see that the car is unfinished, though it’s primary purpose of transforming has been completed. Cohen says she has a few finishing touches in mind, including sending parts off to get chromed and having a mural painted in a narrative style tying the history of low-riding to the history of East Germany. There are some interesting parallels, Cohen said, like the fact that Lowriding became illegal in L.A. the same year that East Germany became sovereign from the Soviet Union.

Unfinished though it may be, that car has now contracted into a squat, little vehicle. Another switch is flipped and the car props itself up on it’s back wheels with a worrisome thud. Another switch and the car outdoes itself, stretching to it’s full span to the awe of all witnesses. Some shake their heads in disbelief. Others stand with mouths agape. No one seems to know what to think.

But they all clap.