Authors: Ben Ruhe
Date Submitted: November 30, 2003
Article Type: Journal

Conrad Shawcross has been described as a dealer in memorabilia from a British organization called the IBLS. The acronymn stands for Investigative Bureau Into the Location of the Soul.

The IBLS was established, according to this self-described London artist, to settle the matter of where the human soul is located. The project initially became bogged down in bureaucracy and internecine strife until a revolutionary notion was formulated that a soul is not to be found in the body but outside it—–in the sky, in fact. What was needed, it was decided, was an apparatus——-“both real and subtle”— —-to trawl through the clouds, catch souls, and then reel them in. Kites, lines and hooks were envisioned for the project. Looking rather like a fishing chair on a boat, the equipment was to be mounted on the top of a Ford Capri, “the car you’ve always promised yourself,” as an advertisement went. Twelve Ford Capris were suitably equipped and the vehicles dubbed Soulcatchers.

The vehicles set out in various directions and all duly vanished. That seemed to end the quest. That is until Conrad Shawcross came across a Capri Soulcatcher in a field in Russia. He bought the vehicle and brought it back to England, where he placed it on exhibition in Sunderland and elsewhere. Retailers viewed it with alarm.

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