This project
is a creative journey, examining my own search for intersections between art
life and bike life. As with any
expedition there are other explorers who have gone before and it is important
to note these in order to map a solid trajectory. Bicycles have made intermittent appearances
in contemporary art over the last century, some of them more glamorous than
others.
GLOBAL
I’ll begin
with Marcel
Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel. In
1913 this French fella decided to place a bike wheel upside down in a stool and
sit in his studio, smoking cigarettes, watching it spin around. “It’s like watching the flames of a fire”, he
said, in a heavy French accent. It was
not until a couple of years later, when Duchamp put a porcelain urinal on a
plinth and tagged it with a pseudonym that he decided he wanted the art world
to think about these objects seriously, offering the idea that they be considered
as ‘ready mades’. This was the revolutionary idea that an
artist could take anything they find and call it art.
Next on my
list is the creative genius Frank
Zappa. I’m not sure I can do
justice to his almightiness in a written description here, except to say that
his wildly prolific career and devotion to testing the boundaries of convention
have influenced multiple generations of artists that have witnessed his
exploits. His appearance on the Steve
Allen Show in 1963, reveals a baby faced Frank, obviously inspired
and at the beginning of his phenomenal career.
One of my favourite Zappa tales is that, without him, there would have been no Smoke on the Water recorded by Deep
Purple. It was a rabid Zappa fan who
shot a flare into the ceiling of the Montreux Casino, mid concert, that “burned the place to the ground…”
Ai Wei Wei is a contemporary and
truly radical artist. His outspoken
artworks and criticism of the Chinese government have had him arrested and
thrown in jail. His high profile has
brought him global attention personally and also to the political cause of his
people. Being that the bicycle is the
primary mode of transport for more than 500 million Chinese it comes as no
surprise that bikes feature in numerous forms in his work. He has variously stacked
and
joined frames and components from China’s leading brand, Forever.
LOCAL
In my time
as an Australian artist there have been a number of bike uses from artists
whose work I am a fan of. Matthew
Bradley is an Adelaide based artist who arguably sowed the seed one
of the most significant seeds for the project that I am undertaking. He has made a couple of works that pay homage
to Australian freak bike culture within the context of his ongoing investigations
of vehicles, exploring and just what it means to be a boy.
Being that
the BMX features heavily in the childhood of most Australian boys it is
predictable that it should appear in the artwork of these boys as they become
artists. Matt
Griffin, Paul
Wrigley and the master of pop culture sculpture, Ricky
Swallow, have all produced variations of this magical two-wheeled
machine that captures the imaginations and afternoons of many a suburban
youth.
There is one
Australian artist that deserves particular attention who has singlehandedly
done more for the union of extreme sport and contemporary art than any other
artist. Shaun Gladwell has spent more
than a decade examining skating, break dancing, bmx, other street sport
cultures and their potential to convey poetic ideas. He continues his global rise and rise and
video art world domination to this day. This is a great video that gives an insight to
his work generally and his 2013 UK exhibition Cycles of Radical Will.
FREAK
Freak bikes,
frankenbikes and generally weird pedal powered vehicles are nothing new. I would like to pay homage to a few cultural
icons the helped birth this particular project.
First of all, CHUNK 666 as true innovators in the genre
of imminent apocalyptic prophecies, inspired many an angle grinder and bicycle union. During the 90's, via their use of the ancient
publishing format of zines, they spread the good word across the US and the
globe. I tip my helmet to the Black Label Bicycle Club
for bringing high energy inspiration in typical NYC fashion. They are representative of radical political ideals and
cultural rebellion, principles to which I am always keen to align.
The
omnipotent Johnny Payphone
gets the heftiest high five here, for a couple of reasons. As a representative of the Rat Patrol he was
invited to Australia by some very clever dicks in our nation’s capital. They formed an Australian chapter, Rat
Patrol Oz, and it was Johnny Payphone who forged the link
between Adelaide’s Tongue of Fire
and the Canberra freaks. I also note Mr
Payphone here in reference to his instructional DIY videos, an interesting
contemporary internet subculture generally speaking, that will likely recur in
my investigations.
Tall Bike Bobby is a combination adventurer
and bicycle advocate whose approach to broadening public perception of cycling
is warm and inviting. He has completed a West Coast tour of the US
aboard a tall bike, spreading the greasy love all over the highways and
laneways of California and beyond.
Lastly, I
would like to pay homage to a great freaky man who has assisted countless
individuals trying to work out how to fix their bike via online
assistance. Anyone who has ever searched for bicycle tech
support will have come across the inimitable Sheldon Brown. A peerless figure of the bicycle
universe, his blog has helped many a cyclist continue their adventures. R.I.P. Dr. Brown.
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