What do you really think about the automobile?
That's no mystery for the 2,000 bicycle riders who took to the streets in suburban Chicago last month in support of The Spindle.
Eight cars spiked on a 50-foot metal pole is a piece of art located in the parking lot of the Cermak Plaza shopping center in the Chicago suburb of Berwyn. A landmark featured in the movie Wayne's World, the thing is scheduled to come down soon to make way for a Walgreens.
Earlier this week, National Public Radio interviewed the artist, Dustin Shuler. He said, “I'm not a gearhead. Cars are something that you notice everyday… and they're probably the hazardous thing you deal with in your life everyday.”
Asked what he thinks about the protests by bicyclists to save The Spindle: “I am touched by the people getting it.”
Reporting on last month's critical mass bike ride to The Spindle, the Chicago Sun-Times quoted one participant:
“A trip to the Spindle is a bike ride that a lot of us have made,” said Dan Korn, a 36-year-old Little Village resident who has participated in Critical Mass rides for years. “So many of us didn't mind using this ride to support the Spindle today. The Spindle is a metaphor to me of the car or perhaps the end of the car. There are a lot of riders who advocate against over-car usage.”
If you like the vision of cars spiked on a metal pole, you'd like some other Shuler sculptures. Among them is a '59 Caddy with a 20-foot nail driven through the roof, and a series of “skinned” automobiles attached to buildings like pelts.
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