Click above to view a high-res gallery of the Alan Aldridge MINI

The perpetual motion machine that is 1960s pop culture will once again reminisce about its faded relevance by rehashing something a Baby Boomer did back before they all became cokehead yuppies driving E30s. This time, the victim is an R56 MINI. Alan Aldridge, an artist and designer responsible for album art for some of the biggest names in the 1960s and 70s, in addition to illustrating children's books and serving as Art Director for Penguin Books, has whipped up a recreation of a project originally done in 1965 for a magazine cover. A MINI has been divided down the middle and painted with a male theme on one side and a female theme on the other. This retreading of past work is to kick off a retrospective display of Aldridge's work called The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes, and MINI's 50th birthday conveniently arrives in 2009, as well. Overall, artwork that appeals to hippies isn't really our thing, but at least it's for a retrospective, rather than just a man running out of original ideas. Press release after the jump.