Photo courtesy of the artist
“Irreconcilable Differences” by leonardogillesfleur
The bicycle’s influence on artists has always been something more behind the scenes than something that’s overly stated. Sure, Picasso incorporated bicycles into his work and impressionist LeRoy Neiman gave the world vivid paintings of cyclists in motion. But for the most part, bicycles have served more as a catalyst for inspiration, rather than a direct subject. Put more simply, the inspiration comes from what the artist sees and how they feel while riding a bicycle, rather than the bike itself.
Over 200 years after its invention, the bicycle—despite having been replaced by automotive sources as the primary source of transportation—continues to inspire artists far more than anything with a combustion engine.
“Besides the clear historical importance of the bicycle, it’s an activity that inspires creativity. Cycling is too much fun or exercise to not be obsessed with it,” says Australian artist Shaun Gladwell. “Also, much like waking, eating and breathing, I can’t remember, or even imagine, life before riding a bicycle.”
“I am more interested in the cultural relevance that bikes represent,” adds artist Lana Z Caplan. “The physical object is less important to me than the way the physical device reveals a cultural system and its social significance, which varies so much from place to place.”
“My best bike rides are always sublime experiences; whether that’s a long bicycle tour or taking a different route to work early in the morning,” says former local artist Peter Scheidt. “It can be challenging, absorbing, fun, utterly exhausting, and feel like flying all at the same time. Bicycling is freedom.”
Photo courtesy of the artist
“Madonna with Tricycle” by Kristen Morgin
Gladwell, Caplan and Scheidt are just three of the 13 artists participating in I Love to Ride My Bicycle, a new group exhibition opening Thursday, Nov. 15 at the SDSU Downtown Gallery (725 West Broadway). On the surface, the participating artists may seem to not have much in common. Almost all of them work in different mediums and are from places as varied as Vietnam and Argentina. San Diego State University professor and Gallery Senior Curator Tina Yapelli wanted to take the themes of I Love to Ride My Bicycle to another level. To display works by contemporary artists who are not only inspired by bikes, but are also working with bikes be it materially or figuratively.
“There are so many artists across the globe who are working with bicycle imagery or bicycles themselves as objects. Or using bicycle parts. Really, my challenge was not finding artists, but trying to narrow my choices,” says Yapelli, herself an avid mountain biker. “That’s when I realized the saliency of this idea in terms of not only my interest in the location of the gallery as a transportation hub, but also the role of bicycles in solving the problems of livable cities, as well as my own interest in cycling, and realizing that this is something that has excited artists since bicycles were invented in 1817. Artists have been using bicycle imagery for two centuries and they continue to do so.”
One of the more famous contemporary artists using the bicycle—not only as a motivating force, but also as a source for materials—is Ai Weiwei. Since 2003, the Chinese conceptualist has been using bicycles and bicycle parts to sculpt otherworldly installations such as the “Forever Bicycles” series. For Shaun Gladwell—who has worked primarily in film, photography and virtual reality art—using a bicycle as a medium goes back much further than Ai.
“For me, the bicycle is part of the technological and artistic revolution that helped usher in modernism,” says Gladwell. “From Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1904 and 1905, who famously used their knowledge of bicycle design and manufacturing, amongst many other things, to invent controlled, powered flight, right through to Marcel Duchamp, 10-years later, attaching a bicycle wheel to the top of a stool for his first readymade sculpture. That was a move that would greatly influence the course of art. It is the bicycle that represents modernism.”
Gladwell will be showcasing “BMX Channel” at I Love to Ride My Bicycle. The 2013 large-scale video piece was shot at Britain’s Southeast Coast and features Welsh BMX rider Matti Hemmings performing what’s come to be known as the “flatland”-style of BMX riding. As Hemmings executes his bike stunts among a foreboding backdrop, Gladwell uses cinematic devices such as slow motion and long pans to give the video an almost choreographed feel. Action sports as performance art.
Lana Z Caplan will also have a video installation, albeit one that’s decidedly interactive. “Welcome to Suzhou” is a looping video installation (what she calls a “moving landscape”) where viewers enter a dark gallery and have to climb onto a bike and begin pedaling for the video projection to start. Shot on the streets of Suzhou, China, the video will speed up as the rider pedals faster; when they stop, the video stops as well. Caplan, who is currently a professor at Cal Poly, says the piece began in 2005 as a “metaphor for U.S.-China relations,” but its themes extend beyond the two countries.
“In the end, after riding for a while, looking into the faces passing during a busy rush hour, more than seeing the other, we can see our everyday selves,” says Caplan, who lived in Suzhou when she began the piece. “Young men, mothers and teenagers—tired and rushing to get home at the end of a busy day.”
Local artist Jason Sherry will also has an interactive piece in I Love to Ride My Bicycle titled “The Timespace Trials.”
“It’s a bicycle that has a vinyl record attached to the front wheel,” says Sherry. “The record is played by an attached needle and amplifier when the bike is ridden. There is a corresponding video of several riders riding on different albums.”
While Sherry and Caplan’s respective pieces are dependent on interaction, I Love to Ride My Bicycle also features plenty of works that are not. Yapelli says she wanted to curate a “very activated space” that includes both figurative and literal works such as paintings from Christopher Brown, sculptural works from Kristen Morgin and Roman de Salvo, and photography from leonardogillesfleur. Still, Yapelli finds a common theme within all the works.
“If you look at the title of the exhibition, it was very intentional to talk about the joy,” Yapelli says. “The intrinsic joy and elation in riding bicycles through the natural or urban landscape. That, I think, is something that unites all the artists in the exhibition. Whatever their medium, they want to share a sense of passion about bicycles.”