Bike art trails have been featured previously on this blog in various conceptions.
They include Dubbo’s unique Animals on Bikes paddock art tourist trail in NSW and London’s interactive community bike art installation Bow Bells Ring by Colin Priest.
For this post, we travel to the beautiful city of Adelaide.
Adelaide’s Bike Art Trail project has 10 public art installations by four different artist/teams dotted around Adelaide on bike paths.
The idea behind this project is to use the art map to ride around and see each of the artworks which are located at key landmarks and tourist locations around the city.
A unique feature of this project is that some of the artworks have been incorporated into – or as – an actual bike rack as well as other being installed alongside bike paths. Although an interesting idea, I doubt cyclists would actually use the bike rack art to lock up their bikes. I’ve never seen any bikes locked up to them. The art bike racks seem more designed for aesthetics, public curiosity or as talking points. Even so, it is still good to see some colour, design and funding being invested to enhance local bike experiences.
These artworks were commissioned by the City of Adelaide, with assistance from the Government of South Australia, through Arts SA.
What are the artworks?
1. Onion Rings by Greg Healey and Gregg Mitchell (Groundplay) – Grote St.
Greg Healey and Gregg Mitchell’s simple organic form references an onion. Adelaide Central Market is an incredibly popular destination. At 1.8m high, this work commands a significant presence in the streetscape. The circular form also allows several bikes to be locked to it
2. Play Here by Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa – Hutt St.
Hutt Street is a busy urban place in Adelaide that has a strong café, art and design culture. As soon as Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa saw the site they knew it needed some bold graphics. Somewhere that was a special place to lock your bike but also somewhere that could hold its own against the backdrop of the local TAB and the two nearby banks.
Deb and Christine took their inspiration from the roads, airports, helipads and line markers of the world. They played with the predictable seriousness and colour tone that line marking usually delivers and added a few tertiary colours and a ‘you are here’ sign that reassures the person sitting on the bench close by of where they are
3. Perspective by Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa – Tandanya, – Grenfell St.
Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa wanted their bike rack/artwork to be a gentle reminder:
- that someone has been here before
- that time will change your perspective
- that we are inexorably linked to the land and the sky.
They have installed two differently shaped bike racks. Each bike rack has a shadow of a bike sandblasted into the ground below it, as if the bike is still there. Drawn from actual shadows, the shadow images indicate different times of the day; one long shadow for early morning and the shortened shadow for early afternoon.
4. Fashionistas by Greg Healey and Gregg Mitchell Groundplay) – Rundle St.
Rundle Street is fast becoming a high street fashion shopping destination and a pair of interlinked coat hangers not only acknowledges, but celebrates this.
Shaping the hooks of the hangers into heads is intended to give them character and pay homage to Joff and Razak of Miss Gladys Sym Choon, recognised pioneers of fashion and of Rundle Street Culture.
5. Branchrack by Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa – Botanic Gardens Entrance.
The Botanic Garden is a place that celebrates plants. Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa wanted to make a bike rack using plant materials, however, that wouldn’t last very long so they opted for the next best thing: a bike rack made from bronze, cast directly from a tree branch.
When they visited the site and saw the row of existing standard bike racks, they decided to model the branch rack similar in form to the standard racks so that the artwork blend in and come as a surprise at the end of the bike rack line.
6. Camouflage by Karl Meyer (Exhibition Studios) – Adelaide Zoo.
This artwork was inspired by animal themes and connects with the diversity of animals within the zoo. Evoking childhood memories, it invites the user or passerby to ponder the relationship between ourselves and other animals. Playing with scale and colour, capturing the essence of the richness in diversity, the satin surface finish and smooth form is designed to invite touch, exploration and connection.
The work subtly embraces the cycling narrative with it spacing and orientation to the existing brightly coloured rack. Within the entry plaza the form and colour is conceived to integrate and complement the landscaping and forms. In contrast to the bright yellow bike racks within the space, the circular shapes seek to connect with bicycles wheels and animal diversity.
7. FORK! by Karl Meyer (Exhibition Studios) – Melbourne St.
The artwork seeks to connect with the contemporary cafe and food culture and as a free standing element.
The Melbourne Street precinct is a vibrant blend of retail, residential and business. The pavements bustle and the area is well known as a popular eating place offering a range of restaurants. The artwork seeks to affirm the cafe scene, to entertain and provoke enquiry and is seen to be a statement to the independence and identity of Melbourne Street as a destination within the broader context of Adelaide.
8. Ms Robinson by Tanya Court – O’Connell St.
The current resurgence of the animal print trend is captured in ‘Mrs. Robinson’. Leopard prints are used as the basis to modify standard stainless steel bike racks, transforming our impoverished urban realm with the most exotic of animal simulations.
9. Paper Bag by Michelle Nikou – North Terrace SA Museum
The location and the numerous ‘heads on plinths’ that line North Terrace generated the concept for this work. ‘Brown Paper Bag‘ is a contemporary and quirky take on ‘the establishment of success’.
Michelle Nikou considered shyness, anonymity and the feeling of not wanting to be seen – or perhaps even negating the pressure to be great when creating this work. Whilst the work does have a serious undercurrent it is also, perhaps foremost, humorous and playful. There is something most charming about little people who play with the anonymity of putting a brown paper bag over their heads–moving in circles and bumping into things.
10. Parking Pole by Michelle Nikou – Hindley St.
This work of Michelle Nikou will mirror what exists beside it but perform a ‘softening of the rules’. It was not possible to construct a conceptually difficult work in such a fast paced zone, however, in the most gentle of ways Michelle hopes to shift perception with ambience of material and humour.
Bronze always says ART and in this way the material is able to insert itself into a ‘dictated space’: changing the paradigm and presenting no rules. From the experience of having parked in the spaces just near this zone, Michelle realised they require some inspection to avoid a fine. Adding to the mix of that inspection is a blank – a blank parking pole and signs made from traditional artists’ materials, it has no instruction on it and therefore remains a space to project oneself on to, appreciable in today’s graphically overloaded world.
Details of each artwork from City of Adelaide blog.