Cars–for some, they are simply a vehicle; for others, they are as important as the brush is to an artist. For many in the United States, it is something vital to living life, a form of transportation that takes us to and from the hustle and bustle of work, to seeing friends separated from us by miles, and visiting family to strengthen ever–loving bonds. Jesse Sugarmann, a contemporary artist, creates works of art that display the automotive world and car culture as partners to human culture and identity showing how they have shaped us and us them.
Hearing Jesse Sugarmann would be opening an exhibit in Bakersfield; I knew that I had to go.
“High, Low, and In Between”, it’s located in Bakersfield, California, at the RAM Art gallery on 614 Kentucky St.
When I first entered the RAM gallery, I was stunned at what I was looking at, as it seeme
d to be a combination of random objects. On the floor of the building were two Kei trucks with a set of air horns upon their bed floor; the walls covered in long wooden rectangles with a sequence of small wooden blocks along it, and metal sheets with sequenced patterns of missing metal like the pattern on the wood bricks aligning with the walls. To someone who had never been exposed to interdisciplinary art exhibits before, I thought it was all unintelligible nonsense.
Yet despite my ignorance, something clicked into place for me as I observed the pieces more. The patterns of the wooden rectangles and the metal sheets were not just random bits and bobs– they were musical sequences! Sure enough, I ask one of the staff there and they inform me they are indeed musical pieces based on Japan’s Melody roads.
Sugarmann had spent the last year in Japan studying and documenting Japan’s Melody roads–roads specifically designed to play simple songs when you drive over them at certain speeds. To achieve this, melody roads are specially constructed with asphalt strips that are carefully spaced. Then when driven over them at a specific speed, they would play simple songs, all with the goal of encouraging safe driving. While at the same time showing how drivers connect with both the road and song by playing familiar songs with roads as they traverse along the paths laid before them.
I was pleasantly surprised, at this taking in of this new information; they were not just randomly strewn about, but were songs waiting for their joyful melodies to be played. Delving deeper into the next room to see what lay beyond I was barraged by the sound from a flurry of Televisions playing the loud, thrumming noise of cars. The volume and noise felt loud at first, then it felt suffocating, like a weight of noise atop me. I could feel my heart racing from the vibrations and sound alone; the cacophony of noise felt overwhelming. The noise and sensation were disorienting and stressful, every step I made felt wrong despite knowing it was right.
The piece was depicting Jesse’s experience in Japan’s culture and how he felt going through it. It’s what he observed and felt while interacting with the polite, traditional culture, which to him felt as if he were too loud like a giant accidentally knocking things over. I felt that feeling in my own life as I experienced in his art– like showing up late to a meeting or a class. That feeling when all eyes are on you every step you take feels thunderous and you feel like you almost forget how to walk. The display on the walls showed the quiet beauty of Japan’s countryside and road pieces, a simple thing, yet within these simple pictures was a sense of quiet and beauty. All these factors created such a feeling of juxtaposition that it was pleasant to take on art that I had not experienced.
Overall, Jesse’s art exhibit is a fascinating take on art and has given me a new appreciation for interdisciplinary art. The work “High, Low, and In Between” truly shows how the methods used to create melodies are used to relay meaning on the road and connect drivers with song and road to society and culture. The exhibit will be open from Jan 23 to
March 23, 2026, with a special artist talk and walkthrough from Sugarmann himself taking place on March 7.
