In 2017, Midtown Alliance (a coalition of business and civic leaders in Atlanta)[1] announced that Rockspinner, a 22,000-pound (10,000 kg) sculpture at the intersection of Peachtree Street and 10th Street in Midtown Atlanta, would be removed on April 3,[2] to be relocated to another city.[3][4] Earlier in the year, the alliance took bids for a sculpture that would replace Rockspinner, planning to debut the new piece in the summer.[3] Several months later, on June 30,[1] a replacement sculpture was installed called Autoeater.[5] The sculpture, carved from Carrara marble, depicts a Fiat Panda being consumed by a distorted creature.[6] The sculpture, which weighs 32,000 pounds (15,000 kg), was designed by Julia Venske and Gregor Spänle and created in Italy,[7] being shipped to Atlanta from a marble quarry near Tuscany after its completion.[8] Discussing the thought behind the sculpture, Venske said, "For us, [Atlanta's] a lot of the traffic and it's a lot about the forest. But the traffic is just really obvious."[7] A statement by the Midtown Alliance claims the sculpture "invites comment on Atlanta's relationship with the automobile in the context of one of the city's most walkable urban districts."[5][6] A 2020 article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution claims the piece "also has a suggestive sexual connotation, as if the car — symbol of capitalist might upended to reveal its rarely seen undercarriage — is being enveloped in an enormous prophylactic."[9] The sculpture was slated for removal in summer 2020, though the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a delay in its removal.[9] The sculpture was removed in 2021.[10]
