John "Spanky" Stokes's PLAYSAM custom for the show at Super7!

Made by our own John "Spanky" Stokes, the above custom Playsam Streamliner Classic is for the upcoming "PLAYSAM 500" group show at Super7. This "Function = Form" piece took Stokes four days of hard labor to complete and, as he explains, there's a solid reason for his 'minimal' approach:

Starting out, I loved the simplicity and elegance of the original car form, and I wanted to keep that in the custom. I could have easily added teeth, eyes, and fur... but for some reason this piece needed [something special]. I cut the PlaySam in half, added magnets and pegs to te two halves, then modified the insides to fit a tiny RC car body that is fully functional and rechargeable!

Yes, it's a working RC car. Seriously, how cool is that? I'm going with very cool. And I love how the steering knob on the controller is made of wood; beautiful little touch. Wanna see it action? So did I…

"PLAYSAM 500" opens on April 28th at Super7, 1427 Haight St. (@ Masonic), San Francisco, CA 94117. Participating artists include: Andrew Bell, Arbito, Clayton Bailey, Dacosta!, Super Cooper Berella, Beast Brothers, Betso, Kat Brunegraff, 64 Colors, Carson Catlin, DrilOne, Tristan Eaton, Brian Flynn, George Gaspar, Paul Greenwood, Gary Ham, Greglovestoast, Nathan Hamill, Jay222, Walter “Chauskoskis” Jacott, Jryu, Jeremiah Ketner, Paul Kaiju, Aya Kakeda, Frank Kozik, Josh Herbolsheimer, Travis Lampe, Matthew Langille, Josh Mayhem, Sarah Lunabee Miskelly, Frank Mysterio, Motorbot, Ritzy Periwinkle, Plaseebo, Patricio Oliver, Task One, Dave Pressler, Reactor 88, Jason “Aka Big Money” Rodan, Jermaine Rogers, Cris Rose, Scribe, Rsin Art, Ardabus Rubber, Skinner, Bwana Spoons, John “Spanky” Stokes, Steve Talkowski, Cameron Tiede, Scott Tolleson, Vise One, Angie Vtec, Ben Walker, Adam Washburn, The Air Rat, Julie West, Kevin Winnik, Nicholas Woodworth... and many others!