Shared Propulsion Car gets its day in court

You guys heard about this yet?

Peter Goddard, the Star’s resident art critic/aging rocker wrote this about the Mercer Union’s current art exhibit that recently got busted by the cops on Queen St:
Whenever art gets busted it usually involves some high-minded principle such as obscenity or the wrong-headed politics.

That’s what makes Michel de Broin’s Shared Propulsion Car so special. It was ticketed Oct.25 by Toronto’s finest for being unsafe.

Now at Mercer Union, Broin’s vehicle, an ancient Buick Regal, sure looks pretty safe to me, even if its worn exterior suggests it’s been parked out under one acid raindrop too many. Then there’s the one working headlight, made of flickering candles, likely the artist’s offering to the long-departed soul of the American auto industry.

Missing from the Berlin-based artist’s car are those particular factors that indeed make cars unsafe, such as an engine or a gas tank. The innards of his car were entirely gutted to allow four yellow bucket seats, four sets of pedals and those few basic extra necessities, such as a rudimentary steering wheel, that go into people-powered vehicles. So yes, it’s a vehicle but one which only appears to be a car.

Driven earlier this year in downtown New York, the vehicle attracted little attention. Driven later in Montreal, the artist’s hometown, it merely received a police warning. But everyone should have known things wouldn’t go so easily in Hogtown, where Barenaked Ladies, the most innocent band in pop history, was once banned by City Hall because the band’s name “objectifies women.”

“Cruising at speeds of up to, oh, 12 kilometres per hour,” writes gallery director Dave Dyment on the Mercer Union website, “we drove nine blocks (from Lisgar to Strachan) before being pulled over by the police.” The charge? “Operating an unsafe vehicle.”

Mercer Union spokespeople have been assured by their lawyer that they have a good chance of winning their case. Trial date is set for April 3.

“The prosecution will have to prove that the car is dangerous, which we suspect will be difficult,” notes Dyment. “In the last 50 years, 200,000 Canadians have died in motor vehicle accidents. No pedal car deaths have been reported.”

OK, I’m a bit conflicted here. Firstly, I like the Mercer Union folks. They’re one of the most vital art institutions in Toronto, they throw great parties, they’re smart and have good programming, etc. Secondly, I’m an avid cyclist and a general believer in N.WA.’s assertion that a cop is just a sucker with a badge trying to get shot. Thirdly, I think this is a funny piece, and I love that it actually worked– the fact that the car is propelled by peoples’ feet is impressive and hilarious at the same time.

But the thing is, the cops have a point. In the immortal words of the ticketing officer, “the safety factor is …unsafe”. Even if it’s going at 5km an hour, it’s still unsafe in my view. Cars are going to expect a vehicle that looks exactly like a car to act like a car (I’ve argued elsewhere that people also expect a sculpture that looks like a bomb to act like a bomb, but that’s another story– I guess I’m just into mimetic debates). Even a 100 year old arthritic man riding a bike still appears to be riding a bike, and if he’s not insane, he’ll drive close enough to the shoulder to let people pass. This “car” was taking up a lane of traffic in a manner far more confusing to the average motorist than a horde of stinky critical massers. So they got ticketed, and I have to say the cops’ logic seemed fairly reasonable.

That said, I’m glad they’re fighting it– on the basis alone that anyone should fight a ticket because usually it works. I also think that none of these safety concerns take away from the work’s artistic merit. I for one think socially engaged art thrives on a level of danger and even potential for antagonism, so if the slow car pissed anyone off, the better for it (and as far as I could tell, at no time did anyone nail themselves to the car’s hood in a Jesus Christ pose, so it can’t have been all that bad). I guess I just find the argument that this car was perfectly safe to be a tad disingenuous.