Impaling Cars in the Name of Art
Friday, 9th January 2009 by James Turnbull
While driving along Telephone Road in Waikato, New Zealand, you may notice that someone appears to have tried to park their car on top of a large tree stump.
This doesn't seem to be an officially sanctioned public artwork, but rather the work of either a kindly local patron of the arts (or possibly just the result of incredibly bad driving).
This mysterious artwork reminded me of Spindle in Illinois, a sculpture consisting of 8 actual cars impaled on a 15m spike, which we looked at from above way back in 2006, but which has since received an inspection by the Street View camera.
Back in 2006, locals informed us that this work of utter genius was under threat from those who, incredibly, felt it was an "eyesore"! The debate raged on until May 2008, when Spindle was sadly dismantled and scrapped.
All may not be lost however, as the top two cars (a 1967 Beetle and a BMW donated by the man who commissioned the artwork) were actually saved from being scrapped - in the hope they might one day be re-used as part of "Spindle 2"!
Is there a petition we can sign somewhere?
Thanks to John Burns
Sigh…another big thing that no one can visit anymore.
Incase you’re wondering about the paint job, it’s not a ex-pat German, those are the local rugby team’s colours,
I would assume that an expat German would also have realized that the colours were in the wrong order for the German flag ;D
It’s not really art, more advertising, but Bell Plumbing in San Francisco has mounted one of its vans on top of a pole and has even wired up its headlights. It’s visible from 101 just south of Hospital Curve:
View Placemark,,0,9.175575165178586
s’marks
Does a Beetle on a roof count?
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=32.449528,-99.735142&z=17&layer=c&cbll=32.449528,-99.735142&cbp=1,24.35384310880761,,0,-26.77887834601436
Here’s a better view from a side street. Can’t see the headlights though.
View Placemark,,0,-8.360865488317417
I don’t know if anybody else cares about this, but I’m always tickled by seeing this van on the pole whenever I drive past.
Stuart, If you hadn’t mentioned the pole, I’d have totally believed the first shot was of a flying van 😀
150m (490 feet) is not right: 15m (50 feet) is probably what you mean here.
Ah, yes, you’re correct Erik, I meant 15m (and have updated the post). Many thanks.
I was obviously getting it confused with the 120m spike in Dublin!
I remember this one growing up in Orlando.
View Placemark,,0,-32.05973339723974
seems abandoned now, though. 🙁
In Berlin Germany on Rathenauplatz, on the western end of Kurfürstendammthere is a concrete sculpture named “Betoncadillac” of artist Wolf Vostell: