Artists Keep on Truckin’

What’s with the recent proliferation of ice-cream trucks transformed into mobile art projects? In 2006 there was Karaoke Ice, a roving partymobile-cum-performance piece stocked with “tinklepop” standards and popsicles (co-created by former Metropolis art director Nancy Nowacek). Then, earlier this summer, we read about the Cloud Project, a retro dessert van modified  by a pair of Royal College of Art students to launch ice-cream flavored clouds out of a giant spray gun. Now we’ve received news of Mister Artsee (left), a vintage ice-cream truck that’s being equipped by Atelier DNA with a Swiss Army Knife–like assortment of extensions, including a stage, video projectors, and a podium, to bring contemporary art to off-the-beaten-path locations in New York. (It debuts September 10 at the Half Gallery.) And I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re missing a few examples. (Debra Solomon’s Lucky Mi Fortune Cooking truck, which we wrote about last April, doesn’t count because it’s a snack truck–no frozen treats.) Please leave your theories about this interesting and potentially delicious trend in the comments form below.