Life is tenuous and luxury easily lost, as illustrated in brilliant glittering fashion by this perfect replica of a Mercedes Benz S550 that has seen better days. Can arbitrarily assigned status be maintained even once an object has been used, abused and discarded for newer and nicer things? Artist Jordan Griska ruminates on these questions and contradictions with ‘Wreck,’ a crushed vehicle reproduced in faceted mirrored stainless steel.

Though its appearance intimates violence and destruction, the car remains undeniably beautiful thanks to all of those individual panes reflecting light at a slightly different angle, making it look like an oversized gemstone. Philadelphia Contemporary, which premiered the sculpture last fall at the city’s Pier 9, notes that the sculpture touches on the ways in which debauchery and decadence can spin out of control.

“Wreck is based on a computer-generated model of a luxury sedan, in a video game, which was manipulated to look like it was involved in a crash that resulted in a fatality,” says Griska. “I crafted 12,000 individual pieces of mirror-finish stainless steel, over the course of almost two years, in order to transform that model into a full-sized three-dimensional monument.”

“The perfect geometry and flawless materiality of the piece reflect the inspiration of idealized digital design, in stark contrast with the grimness of the reality it represents. Beauty, technology and engineering collide with death and reality.”

If you’ve ever wondered what the cars of Mad Max: Fury Road would look like all cleaned up, or you want some inspiration for a totally bonkers hot rod creation of your own, check out this photo series by photographer John Platt. Minute details of the vehicles can be seen in shockingly pristine states, as they were just after their creation and prior to the start of filming, giving us a good look at all the custom contraptions welded together into junkyard monsters.

In the movie, there’s so much desert dust kicked up by the tires of all those vehicles, we miss out on a lot of those details. The cars are appropriately filthy – and in this universe, they probably always would have been.

It’s hard to imagine anyone putting time and effort into washing and shining them up in between epic chases on the sand, and all those parts came from scrap yards anyway.

That makes Platt’s photo series all the more satisfying. He got to photograph some of the movie’s 150 custom vehicles in his studio with proper lighting before they got dirty, and it’s a good thing, too – most of them were utterly destroyed during filming.

Production designer Colin Gibson individually designed and sculpted each car and motorcycle according to writer and director George Miller’s vision. No wonder it took 15 years to complete pre-production. See the whole series here.

Automobile owners in Amsterdam are waking up to find that their cars have been ‘customized’ overnight with cardboard and masking tape. Suddenly, their boring old sedans boast body fenders, spoilers, grilles and hood scoops. You’re welcome, says artist Max Sidentopf, creator of the ‘Slapdash Supercars’ project. Maybe the new additions won’t even survive a quick trip down the street, but that’s not really the point.

“Individuality, self-expression, and status are more important than ever these days,” Sidentopf tells Vice. “But for some reason you see that things as ordinary as cars are getting personalized less and less, while it could be a strange but great form of self-expression. I thought I’d do people a favor by giving them a custom-made supercar.”

The result is undeniably goofy, and the reaction of the owner is probably a test of both their sense of humor and how precious they are about their vehicles, since not everybody is crazy about the idea of strangers clambering all over their cars and leaving tape residue behind after the customizations have been removed.

It’s a simple prank, and a funny way to remind people of the creative possibilities in each day, whether you have any desire to actually pimp your ride or not.

Thousands of people get to gaze at beautiful original artwork while taking a ride from one place to another in Mumbai, India, bringing exposure to local design talent through a new form of urban art. The Taxi Fabric Project beautifies this often impersonal mode of transport, making cabs stand out as individuals in a crowded sea of cars and creating mobile galleries that immerse riders in a particular artist’s imagined world.

“Design – as a job or studied at school – is unfortunately not widely recognized in India,” say the creators of the project. “Older generations don’t understand it. Design to them just performs a function. Many people don’t know that design can create a real impact. With so few spaces for young people to show off their skills, it’s hard to change that perception.”

In a city where cabs are the most convenient and common way to get around, this unusual mashup of art and transportation has the potential to get a lot of people excited about design and curious about the artists. Up to 30 taxis will be made over for the project, printing colorful works onto fabric and stitching it directly to the interior surfaces of each car.

One notable example is ‘A Century of Revolt’ by Kunel Gaur, which illustrates the Indian Independence in a fresco-inspired style. Another – ‘Monad’ by Samia Arif – reminds Indians how similar their culture is to that of neighboring Pakistan, while conflicts continue to rage between the two countries.

‘Happily Ever After’ by Shaivalini Kumar celebrates the landmarks of Mumbai. “The architecture of Mumbai blends Gothic, Victorian, Art Deco, Indo-Saracenic and contemporary architectural styles. Many buildings, structures and historical monuments remain from the colonial era. All these buildings coexist beautifully and are also as resilient as the amazing people of Mumbai.”

An upside-down, cherry-red car clings improbably to a slice of a concrete parking lot as it curls up over itself in this gravity-defying installation by British artist Alex Chinneck. Hanging in mid-air with no visible supports, ‘Pick yourself up and pull yourself together’ is a collaboration with Vauxhall Motors located just outside London’s Southbank Centre.

About 50 feet of the parking lot surface appears to have been peeled right up, with the vehicle hanging from its uppermost curve within sight of one of the city’s most iconic landmarks, the London Eye. Hidden sections of steel designed by structural engineers hold the car in place.

“I see sculpture as the physical reinterpretation of the material world around us and so by introducing fictional narratives into familiar scenarios, I try to make everyday situations as extraordinary as they can be,” says Chinneck. “I choose to do this through illusions because I think there is something both optimistic and captivating about defying the realms of possibility.”

“With an effortlessly curling road I hoped to transcend the material nature of tarmac and stone, giving these typically inflexible materials an apparent fluidity. Vauxhall Motors allowed me a great amount of creative freedom and this collaboration offered my studio an exciting platform to explore new areas of engineering and fabrication.”

Top image by Richard Simms