Gino Sevirini, Armored Train in Action, 1915

Alright folks, it's our second to last stop on this crazy train, and look what's waiting for us: The crazy train. The Futurists took a look at the world and said, "You know what we need? More car crashes." And what's the best way to crash more cars? You guessed it, make 'em go faster. Now with all the technological advances and the war and what-not, the futurist movement was almost inevitable. With a sharp focus on subverting culture through the obsession with the mechanization of life and human beings, and a fetish for destruction, the Futurists set about creating a manifesto that praised death, destruction, and the counterculture. Suddenly, motion in art had reached a whole new level, and that's the level that Gino Sevirini's Armored Train in Action occupies: Completely bonkers.

Just look at this thing. It's the pinnacle of everything that we've discussed over these past few blog posts. Severini's got moving color, lines dashing all over the place, guns blasting violently with the paths conveniently, and beautifully, traced out for the viewer. Armored Train is truly a site to see. Not only does it reflect the Futurist obsession with technology and violence, but grounds the obsession in the context of the war, and the use of technology to change the tide of battle. As the soldiers fly down the tracks - which we can only assume lay beneath the metal and smoke - on the train, they begin to become one with the vehicle, their guns molding into the steel armor. Meanwhile the yellows and blues bounce off of one another, occasionally overlapping, creating green amongst the mess, breathing movement into the very color scheme of the piece.

Whether the train is traveling away from or toward the viewer is unclear, as the cannons of an armored train car are located on both ends of the vehicle. I myself like to imagine that the train intends to carry me up and away through the top of the image, roaring through the abstract atmosphere of yellows and blues, reaching impossible speeds, careening around corners, derailing, soaring, crashing. And then I snap out of it. What a ride.