Dustin Shuler’s Spindle Destroyed in Favour of a Walgreens?
Every object has its day, but to replace Dustin Shuler’s spindle with a Walgreen’s is an art crime. I just visited Spindle in it’s home at Cermak Plaza in Berwyn, Illinois on July 3rd, and it was one of the highlights of my trip to Chicago, a city that just seems to get public art. I’m not always in favour of preserving art, especially public art, but I love this piece. Beyond my attraction to it as a sculptural object, it’s smart land use, and well placed, too. A mall parking lot is the perfect place for this piece – the perfect environment to not only showcase the aesthetic of the piece (there’s something almost desert-like about the asphalt vastness of Cermak Plaza that really lends to the aesthetic of the piece), but to be face to face with society’s relationship to the automobile. It’s almost like looking at Michaelangelo’s David amidst the quarry that it was hewn from, or like seeing a piece in the studio.
There’s a website set up Save the Spindle, who are working to preserve the sculpture, and all I can really do from far away California is to E-mail local pols and hope the best for them. A second website, Save our Spindle, is also advocating for the preservation of this piece of art. Of course, Spindle has a myspace page, with an awesome assortment of 500+ friends, including lots of other famous road stuff, like Giant Rubber Band Balls and the Weinermobile. There’s also a resolution in the Illinois Senate to to save the Spindle, as well. It would be a black eye to everything that’s good and American if Spindle gets torn down.
Here’s a list of people you can possibly encourage or harass about saving the Spindle.
Berwyn Arts Council
Info@BerwynArtsCouncil.org
708-601-ARTS
City of Berwyn
Mayor Michael O’Connor
moconnor@ci.berwyn.il.us
Aldermen
1st Ward
Nona N. Chapman
708-484-6662
aldchapmanward1@aol.com
2nd Ward
Santiago “Jim” Ramos
708-484-4275
2ndward@berwyn-il.gov
3rd Ward
Mark Weiner
708-484-7512
3rdward@berwyn-il.gov
4th Ward
Michele D. Skryd
708-788-6934
4thward@berwyn-il.gov
6th Ward
Michael J. Phelan
708-7749-4342
6thward@berwyn-il.gov
7th Ward
Robert J. Lovero
708-788-1885
7thward@berwyn-il.gov
8th Ward
Joel Erickson
708-484-4999
joel@berwynfirst.com
Technorati Tags: Spindle, Dustin Shuler, Berwyn, Cermak Plaza, public art, sculpture, art, cars
July 31st, 2007 at
How cool would that be if someone skewered a parking lot full of WALGREENS on a spindle and called it art?
July 31st, 2007 at
You always have the best ideas. Even skewering a single Walgreens would be a triumph.
August 1st, 2007 at
Marshall,
Thanks for the support of our Save The Spindle efforts. We sincerely appreciate it.
We will be linking to your blog from our site at http://www.savethespindle.com.
May 3rd, 2008 at
I cannot believe that any intelligent, reasonable people are spending their time worrying ober the demolition of a stack of cars on a spindle & that anyone refers to it as a work of art. I live in a northern Chicago suburb but I’ve been to Berwyn & I’ve seen the spindle.
I don’t care who the property went to…Walgreens or anyone else. The thing was an eyesore. Those who have evdiently been spending their time rallying around what they consider a landmark would surely better serve their community, and all of us, in fact the USA, by donating their time volunteering for a worthwhile cause…at a hospital, a homeless shelter, an outreach center…there are multitudes of charitable organizations to choose from.
Are you all ignorant, selfish people? Do you see your life calling to be protecting a bunch of skewered automobiles (which contribute to the economy crisis we all presently suffer)? If so, you are truly ignorant. Please consider expending your efforts to save something meaningful…like the life of a hungry child.
You are idiots!!!
May 3rd, 2008 at
Joanne – I find your comment highly insulting. You, like anyone else, have a right to dislike, even detest, Spindle. That’s fine. There’s a lot of work in museums that everyone seems to love, but that I can’t stand. Taste is personal.
But what do you know about the lives of those of us who argue for its preservation? Nothing, really. Do you think we do nothing but mill about, devoting all of our productive energies and attentions to the preservation of this artwork? Of course not.
I, for example, work in the non-profit industry, and my small organization of underpaid and overworked comrades devote all of our working time (and much of our non-working time, as well) to better the community we live in. Our organization provides education to thousands of underserved elementary – high school children every year, including programs that work specifically with homeless children. I have no doubt that other persons sympathetic to the fate of Spindle devote their energies to causes equally socially important, if not more so.