A Versatile Material

The Fiat 500 is pretty cool.
http://www.chrisgilmour.com/cache/zoom_2a.jpg

That’s not just any Aston Martin; note the machine guns under the headlights and the tire knife extending from the rear hub.
Wiki confirms the license plate, BMT216A, is one of the three plates that could be displayed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Bond_vehicles#Aston_Martin

Apparently it’s all cardboard.
http://www.chrisgilmour.com/cache2/zoom_001.jpg
Somewhere between model making and sculpture.

AC1,
“…the real thing is more beautiful than this simulacrum.”
Yes, and the original has a more credible claim to being art. Gilmour’s work is impressive model making, certainly, and the example above is a cute homage; but it pales beside the creation of, say, the Bugatti Veyron.
http://www.bugatti.com/en/veyron-16.4.html
And this a problem many artists now have. Commercial invention, at which we’re supposed to sniff, often – very often – leaves “pure” artists in the dust.

Simen,
“…it should be something that transcends the artist and leaves a permanent impression.”
Agreed. And it’s why many of “art” items mentioned here are also tagged “ephemera,” which often seems more accurate. They’re tagged as “art” largely because that’s how others refer to the objects in question. The things I feel have qualities that good art should have – a lingering aesthetic impression, a sense of wonderment – tend to be objects that would never appear in a gallery or be widely acknowledged as art. The Veyron, for instance, is an extraordinary achievement and seems to qualify, as does the Millau Viaduct.