Bike Culture: A Roundup

How to slam-dunk rubbish, or what abandoned bikes have to do with the economy of war.

By now you likely know that we’re devoted to bikes, to riding them as well as admiring them in all their variety. Today we’d like to steer you to three waypoints in the growing bike culture trend—at least we hope it’s both growing and a trend.

BICYCLE INFRASTRUCTURE

David Byrne’s New York City bike racks (remember those?) double as an editorial in iron—each rack is designed to comment on the character of the neighborhood, its businesses and denizens.

We all know that lots of adults ride bikes in Copenhagen—about 30% of that city’s population regularly commutes by bike. That compares to about .07% of New Yorkers. So it makes sense that the city planners would think of all the little improvements aimed at making the cyclist comfortable, such as this footrest.

David Hembrow documents life on a bike in a country perhaps most deeply associated with practical riding in everyday life, The Netherlands. In his blog, “A view from the cycle path,” David recently showed how civil and green the Dutch can be, all without stepping off their bike — rubbish receptacles for coasting and disposing.

For the big bicycle picture, for advancing its place at the center of US politics, there’s the Bike Caucus, run by congressman Earl Blumenthal who always begins his speeches on behalf of the caucus with a dedication to all those Americans stuck in traffic on the way to the gym to ride a stationary bike.

To chart not only the increase in bike-friendly infrastructure, but also to chart your next ride, use the new Google Maps directions for cyclists. Map it, cycle it, and then give Google your feedback—all ways to do your own two-wheeler activism.

BICYCLE ART & STYLE

Joe Schumacher is a NYC-based photographer who walks a lot and takes pictures of things he finds. His blog, what about the plastic animals?, captures the off-beat and pedestrian, but we’d like to direct you to his haunting and beautiful photos of abandoned bicycles of Gotham.

Those who don’t abandon their bikes can also evoke a striking scene. Perhaps a cousin of steampunk, the Bicycle Tweed movement is rolling through cities across the U.S. Here’s the site dedicated to San Francisans astride their velos and attired in their distinctive and antique wool.

Art and commerce come coasting together at Bertelli Bici in New York City. The site’s photography is simple and gorgeous and these bikes, built from a combination of old and new parts, achieve a kind of sculptural beauty.

BICYCLE ACTIVISM, OF SORTS

We all know about the Critical Mass movement spreading around the world. But devoted cyclists have a nice set of alternatives to express their dreams of making the world a better place. One organization we’ve long admired is Bikes Not Bombs in Boston. It’s an organization that stitches together community, education and employment of the under served, and bicycle culture as an alternative to cars, the oil economy, and war.

And what could be less threatening than a kid on a bike looking for a high five? Well, not so much if that kid happens to be a SCUL pilot steering a ship called Angry Candy and offering a high five from about six or seven feet up, roughly the position of a pilot on a typical SCUL ship. SCUL (Subversive Choppers Urban Legion) is a Massachusetts-based “anti-elite band of pilots testing out experimental ships, exploring the Greater Boston Star systems and occasionally other galaxies” from their “subspace communication broadcast headquarters.”

Finally, we’ve got to give a shout out to our local bike culture faves, the volunteers at Bikerowave. Lots of cities have them, but this LA neighborhood tool library and DIY bike repair hangout has a great vibe and lots of knowledgeable and friendly volunteers.

Andrew Lynch is a refugee from the academy now working in advertising. While he sometimes misses writing heady sentences including words like “teleological”, he’s enjoying his stint decoding the more varied and messy signs and symbols of pop culture, consumer trends, and brand stories.

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The Museum of Everything

What Disney animation, Kabuki performance art and styrofoam trays have in common.

The world of contemporary art, for all its global reach, is relatively small. A select group of collectors, critics, and curators define an equally select group of artists as “in,” and those same names repeatedly fill exhibitions and installations from Amsterdam to Venice. Not for nothing is the string of major art festivals called a circuit.

What’s left out, on the other hand, is a vast range of work that for the first time has a dedicated space in the UK. Just open this month, the Museum of Everything in northwest London calls itself a place “for artists and creators living outside our modern society.” And indeed, most of the names shown at the Museum will be unfamiliar to the art-world denizens currently in Regent Park for the annual Frieze Art Fair. (To our knowledge, this is the first such museum in Europe; however, the American Visionary Art Museum and other museums of so-called folk art have significant institutional legacies.)

Located in a former dairy factory in Primrose Hill, the Museum of Everything displays work typically called intuitive or outsider art. No one genre defines the collection, and “mixed media” is the descriptor that accompanies much of the work. What the artists do have in common, however, is that they are all self-taught and create work with singular and distinctive vision.

Sister Gertrude Morgan, 'God's Greatest Hits,' 1978

Sister Gertrude Morgan was a self-proclaimed missionary, poet, and musician whose self-portraits on paper, styrofoam trays, and window shades often depict her as a bride of Christ. A more widely known name, Henry Darger worked as a custodian in Chicago for more than fifty years while also creating elaborate drawings and paintings based on a fully formed fantasy world and narrative.

Henry Darger

One artist whose work we discovered thanks to the Museum is Kunizo Matsumoto. The Japanese-born Matsumoto fills notebook upon notebook with stories of the things he loves, among them Disney animations and Bunraku and Kabuki performance art. The densely covered pages seem to speak in shibboleths, scripts whose real meaning remain mysterious to all but the artist himself.

Kunizo Matsumoto

James Brett, the Museum of Everything’s founder, is a filmmaker who has collected these visionary works for years. In addition to his own selections, the Museum’s inaugural exhibition was curated by some very “inside” artists and cultural figures. David Byrne, critic Hans Ulrich Obrist, and artist Marcel Dzama are among the big names involved, ironically drawing the fringe inside the typically closed contemporary-art circuit.

Brett’s collection comprises artists’ complex inner worlds, replete with characters, codes, and customs we may not understand. We can, however, enjoy them, and be grateful that places such as the Museum of Everything have discovered this art and given it a place to call home.

Use the Museum’s list of artists as a jumping-off point from which to explore their worlds.

Kirstin Butler has a Bachelor’s in art & architectural history and a Master’s in public policy from Harvard University. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn as a freelance editor and researcher, where she also spends way too much time on Twitter. For more of her thoughts, check out her videoblog.

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Music Spotlight: This Must Be The Place

Axe-swinging, rope-jumping, or what David Byrne and Christian Bale have in common.

We love David Byrne. (Heck, he even has his own tag around here.) And we love remix culture. So, naturally, we’re all over actor-slash-singer Miles Fisher‘s electro-pop cover of The Talking Heads’ This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody), in the video for which Fisher recreates scenes from iconic film culture hallmark American Psycho.

The cover is a free download on Fisher’s site and comes as a promo for his self-titled EP, which compensates for its — we’re sorry to say — lack of depth with incredible catchiness of the can’t-get-it-out-of-your-head variety.

Not a bad trade-off on a hot summer day.