#1

 

Meandering around the LES one afternoon I ran into this oddity of a sculpture in a park. Initially and most obviously, this piece seems to refresh our vision of the world; giving a more imaginative approach to something we often see in the city. At first I had no idea for what purpose it was made or if it even held any type of deep meaning. All I knew was that it caught my attention and that I couldn’t stop staring at it. It demanded a photograph. At second glance you notice more of the perspective twisting underlines. I find that it might be easy for the regular person to dismiss this as “art without meaning”, but seeing it in person is when the piece really shines. One thing to note is the gracefulness of the distortion. When viewed from the front side you notice the bike is actually symmetrically bent. It’s simple, but it definitely had me mesmerized for a solid ten minutes and I think that’s the artist’s ultimate goal, sparking imagination and interest. The piece isn’t even your usual sculpture; it’s an actual vintage Raleigh bike. Containing the primary colors red/blue/yellow along with white/black, a very popular color scheme among many paintings. This connection between the palette and symmetry might be the most interesting, it had me wondering whether this piece was referencing Mondrian or other artists like him. Maybe the palette was just to amplify elegance. Another thought I had was perhaps the artist simply hates bikes and this was their way of condemning them – which is amusing seeing as how cycling is extremely popular in NYC. I definitely felt some pain over the loss of a perfectly good Raleigh!