‘Anti-Auto Show’ Displays Disdain for Cars, Effect on Environment

A tall guy who folds himself into a 1992 Honda Civic, artist Phil Burke doesn’t enjoy following gas-guzzling, vision-blocking sport-utility vehicles that can dwarf his car.

So he vented the best way he knows: painting huge illustrations of the back ends of a Cadillac Escalade and Lincoln Navigator, sport-utility vehicles that Burke calls a “blight to the freeways.”

Burke is among the 16 “transit-riding, bike-liking” artists who are taking a pot-shot at the city’s king industry by putting on the fourth North American International Anti-Auto Show.

The 10-day art exhibit--set to rail against an international auto show going on across town--opened Friday, intent on raising $3,000 to install bike racks throughout the city and provide an alternative to the ubiquitous motor vehicle.

“The message is to make you think about your approach to transit,” said artist Jenny Schmid while helping set up a vehicle-loathing display at Detroit Contemporary gallery, a drafty, yellow cinder-block building that once served as, well, an auto supply store.

“I think there’s a lack of reflection on how freeways have shaped this town and divided people,” Schmid said.

Billed as “slam-on-the-brakes artwork,” the collection doesn’t pull punches about a disdain for automobiles and their environmental impact.

To that end, an encased diorama near Burke’s “Obstructed View” series depicts a downtown scene, with an auto show nestled by a party store and a prostitute standing on a corner--to Schmid, “a more realistic Detroit environment.”

Then, there’s the back end of a Ford pickup truck converted into a bed, its sawed-off cab serving as a headboard.

“There’s an old saying: You can live in your car, but you can’t drive your house,” said Schmid before a friend chimed in, “You’re getting a lot of mileage out of that.”

On an upstairs wall, the word “commute” is painted eerily in heavy-metal font. Framed exhibits include “Broken Headlight,” a photographed diorama of a miniature motorist stopped by two police officers.

Nearby is a deaf man’s display of written notes by police who have pulled him over. “Drivers license. You were weaving a little. Where you coming from? Where are you going?” reads one of the messages, all of them tacked above a Dunkin’ Donuts cup also bearing an officer’s scrawl.

Last year’s exhibit drew 700 people--compared with 800,000 who attended “the other show”--but it raised about $1,000 for nonprofit Rails for Trails, a group converting old railroad tracks into bike routes, according to gallery director Aaron Timlin. He said Detroit drivers yelled, honked and occasionally threw things when he rode his bike to work.

“I’d be happy to see one bike rack in each of our major cultural centers, museums, cafes,” Timlin said. “Maybe the bike racks will help us to start thinking that way, more bike-friendly.”