The Wash

Lying at the corner of 6th St. and Folsom in a nearly petrified state of waste are the remains of a car wash. Simple in stature, the rectangular car wash is open ended, a collapsed sunroof to the heavens, stations for manual cleaning neatly mounted at entrance and end. The building grazes the corner sidewalk much like a Taco Truck, transgressing typical boundaries of commercial space, edging ever closer into the intimacy of the streets where pedestrians walk in bipedal fashion rather than ride on four wheels.

A place where drivers dismount their steel steeds, breathe in the cosmic gases of industry, and pay a couple green bills for their robot's purification. A structure for meditation. A robot cleaned and a mind restored. What to make of an abandoned car wash in the historic auto district?


Much like human beings, robots require occasional cleansing by ablution. Detailed rituals of purification have been developed to remove clods of filth from the robot, refreshing its thickened skin to a softened stage of premature innocence.

Rolled onto a conveyor belt apparatus, initial baptismal waters lightly wash over the surfaces of the soiled vehicle. Only the exterior receives these water blasts, which increase in vivacity and pressure as the rolling machine grows accustomed to the cleansing ritual. A soapy residue churns out from socket furnaces and piping to envelop the robot in a wispy, sud concoction.


Once thoroughly johnsoned & johnsoned, spongy cobalt creatures--dressed in the furry hair that recalls nothing less than an elderly smurf--spin spasmodically, gently lacerating the vehicle with their rubbery tentacles. Although slightly painful for the robot, the rapid whippings break up knots of dirt still intact after the ablution soaping. The filth amalgamates in preparation for a final vacuuming from gyrating suction necks, whisking the sludge into the sewer's oblivion with billowing chokes of gas. Alas, a car manifests itself, stammering for destination, yearning for concrete, beckoning contenders, anticipating a medley of primary colored lights.