OUR AMERICAN CONSTITUTION, VANITIZED!

 

Mike Wilkins proved that vanity plates are pop culture icons.

Using 51 actual vanity plates – one from each state, and one from D.C. – Wilkins recited the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution [“We the people…”], to celebrate its bicentennial, in 1987.

Nissan Motor Co. donated “Preamble” to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where it is one of the most popular artworks on display, according to Smithsonian officials.

Wilkins persuaded officials from 51 American departments of motor vehicles to participate in the “Preamble” project by issuing actual “pretend” vanity plates; he attached the plates to an 8-foot square vinyl canvas, which suggests an automobile dashboard.

“Actual [vanity] plates added authenticity, and part of the conceptual part of the work is having to convince 51 separate [DMVs] …that it is a good idea,” Wilkins said.

According to Wilkins, “After the Smithsonian [curators] said they wanted the work, I tried to get every US auto company… oil company… [and] auto parts/rent-a-car/tire maker to buy it from me and donate it. I was turned down everywhere. I had a friend at Nissan's ad agency, and he was able to present it to them, and they loved the idea.”

It's ironic that only officials from Nissan, based in Japan, had the vision to recognize that“Preamble” is American pop art; they saw that vanity plates are fascinating and fun, and that the 51 vanity plates in “Preamble,” each of which must be read and deciphered, are a metaphor for the United States itself. Nissan-ites are also visionaries in leading the development of zero emission, electric motor vehicles.

As Wilkins intended, the vanity plates in “Preamble” make people think; it's the only artwork he ever created. He is an author (with Doug Kirby and Ken Smith) of Roadside America, a book and web site that catalog “offbeat tourist attractions.” He hasn't found any vanity plate museums…yet.