Starring as part of Art Production Fund’s “Set Seen” program at Frieze Los Angeles 2024, one of Pippa Garner's backwards cars is driving around Santa Monica Airport. Garner’s pickup (license plate: pukcip) appears to drive backwards, its hood and loadbed reversed, and is adorned with super-sized “truck nuts”

One of Garner’s most significant works, the Backwards Car, 1974, was facilitated by Esquire, which agreed to pay for a used Chevrolet, the body of which was removed from its chassis by Garner – who did all of the mechanical work herself – then flipped around and refastened, so the car appeared to be driving backwards when it was moving forwards and vice-versa. The most iconic photographs of the project show the accident-chancing automobile moving with traffic over San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

A highlight of this year’s Frieze Los Angeles is artist Pippa Garner’s Haulin’ Ass! (2023), a fully functional 2003 Ford Ranger pickup truck that appears to be permanently driving in reverse, adorned with super-sized dangling testicles (or “truck nuts”). Haulin’ Ass! continues Garner’s exploration of gender and masculinity amid the US’s rampant commodity fetishism. The work is presented as part of Art Production Fund’s program “Set Seen”.

Pippa Garner: Haulin' Ass! Frieze Los Angeles 2024. Santa Monica Airport, February 29, 2024.