Product of LA IV turns its gaze toward car culture, Western nostalgia, and a city in material decline.

There is an inherent contradiction in the romantic image of the renegade motorist or the cowboy, both blue-collar, working-class figures, but positioned as symbols of freedom. We explore this tension through references to Route 66 alongside LA’s Western heritage.

Driving along Route 66, we imagine wheat fields, farmlands, gas stations, and skylines punctuated by billboards. The scenic vista, another carefully constructed fantasy. In a poem licensed from his estate, Ogden Nash laments the irreversible imprint of billboards on the landscape.

We wonder, what imprint do they leave on us? Are we free, or merely freeway junkies? Am I the cowboy, or the cow?