As someone who delights in discovering artists who use bikes in their creations, I was delighted to stumble upon an Australian artist named Hilary Warren.
First, she’s an Australian female artist who, despite winning many awards, is not as well known her male counterparts. But that’s not what drew me to her work – it was the fact that two out of her five prints on the site featured a bicycle!
I also appreciate that Hilary is an older artist who only has two followers and few views of her work on this platform. As someone who values supporting and increasing the visibility of lesser known or underestimated individuals, I was more interested in Hilary’s work than the others listed.
I was also interested to Hilary uses work uses etching, which is not a common art medium – and certainly not one I have seen used in bike art very often at all.
I was also intrigued by Hilary’s artwork because it brought back memories of my time in Hoi An. I had the pleasure of cycling around the city and taking in the local atmosphere, and her prints captured that feeling so well. It was a delightful reminder of the happy days I spent exploring the city on two wheels and seeing exactly the kind of houses her work depicts.
Hilary’s choice to depict bicycles in the everyday life of Hoi An is significant because it serves as a reminder that bikes are utilized by diverse communities all over the world. It challenges the normative images and pervasive media representations that often only showcase white men as cyclists. By highlighting how people from all walks of life use bicycles in their daily routines, Hilary’s prints offer a much-needed reset from the limited and exclusionary messaging we often receive about cycling. It is refreshing to see such a representation showcasing a broader range of bike riding lifestyles, contexts and experiences.
In this collection, Hilary depicts everyday life in Hoi An, Vietnam, where bicycles are a staple of daily life. The way she captures the spirit of the city and how casually the bicycles wait outside people’s front doors at the ever-ready – is simple and meaningful.
It’s a testament to the way that bicycles are woven into the fabric of a community, becoming a vital part of the culture and identity of a place.
I like that her prints are understated and simple.
The sepia wash accentuates the nostalgic feeling of bygone years ..a time when every house had a bike ……. (*sigh*)…………..
Hilary Warren is a Canberra-based printmaker who began her art career after working in science. She obtained a PhD in Plant Biochemistry in 1970 and worked in Immunology until her retirement in 2014. She then turned her skills to printmaking, focusing on the Photopolymer Photogravure technique, in which she adapts her own photographs to create etched photopolymer plates. Warren has developed this skill through workshops with well-established Australian printmakers, and her hand-pulled prints are created using oil-based etching inks and Hahnemuhle paper.
Warren’s early work focused on images from her travels in Europe and Asia, but with travel limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she has started a series of botanical etchings using photographs taken in her own garden and at the Australian National Botanic Gardens. In other works, she explores still life, always emphasizing the use of light and shade to create a unique view of something ordinary.
Warren is committed to participating in the Australian and international printmaking community and finds inspiration in print exchanges, exhibitions held in Canberra by the Artists Society of Canberra and the Canberra Art Workshop, and prestigious art prizes, where she has been selected as a finalist in several. She is always eager to learn from others and continues to develop her skills through workshops and collaboration with other artists.
Regular readers of this blog know my bicycles-for-education PhD fieldwork was with the local people and riders of Lunsar, Sierra Leone.
The Lunsar Cycling Team has been gaining increasing attention recently, especially with the upcoming, ever popular annual Tour de Lunsar cycling event.
I was delighted to see AFRICAP is a Tour de Lunsar event supporter. AFRICAP cycling caps was founded by Hammer (from Sierra Leone!) who started it out of a love for cycling and a desire to bring something special to the sport.
Africap was created to merge two passions: African prints and cycling. Cycling caps are not traditionally made with African prints, so Africap saw an opportunity to change that. They create beautiful and stylish cycling caps made from traditional African fabrics.
Image: Africaps
Ankara Prints
Each Africap product is made with a unique African print. The prints are sourced from all over the continent, so no two products are exactly alike.
These cycling caps are handcrafted from Ankara material which is a traditional African fabric. Ankara textiles are wax-printed cotton fabrics commonly used across West Africa and each region has its own distinctive design. The material itself is great as it is very light, airy and absorbent which helps keeps riders cool.
Each cap is named after a particular region that the fabrtic is from. Africaps are not factory made, but released in limited editions so are collector’s items and highly sought after.
Image: Africaps
There are so many different African prints and textiles, it can be hard to know where to begin. One of the things that makes African prints so special is the range of colours and designs. Whether you’re looking for something bright and bold or more subdued and traditional, there’s an African print out there for you.
Ankara prints are unique for many reasons. One reason is that they are handmade. African prints are also usually made with bright, bold colors that reflect the vibracy and diversity of African cultures. Ankaras often have geometric patterns that are created by both hand-painting and block printing. African prints usually have a lot of symbolism. For example, certain animals may be used to represent different ethnic groups or ideas. All of these factors combine to create some truly beautiful and unique fabrics.
Image: Africaps
Africap’s STORE has a range of musettes and their groovy cycling caps are named after the regions the material comes from –such as Bo, Ngor, Cocody, Abduja, Odu and Regent.
I was super impressed to see that Africap supports sustainable practices and that no plastic materials are used during production or sales cycles. I can see why these caps have quickly become a favorite among cyclists in Africa and for those ‘in the know’ internationally.
Africaps is working to expand its reach beyond Africa, and has already partnered with several international cycling teams.
The company’s mission is to promote cycling in Africa and to help African cyclists reach their potential. And it was great to see them doing this with their renewed support of Tour de Lunsar 2022.
See more about Africaps and Hammer in Sylvie D’Aoust’s video below.
The annual Chicks in the Sticks event was coming up and I was registered. This year, I wanted to continue conversations about the unbearable whiteness of cycling and lack of support/inclusion of First Nations riders, decolonising MTB, celebrating First Nation experiences and better recognising First Nations connection to country at MTB events.
CITS is Queensland’s biggest, annual all-female 3hr Enduro mountain bike event. Those who know me know I like to bring the fun – so a theme bike and outfit was in order, but not anything mainstream.
Chicks in the Sticks – Annual All-female 3 hr Enduro Event
At this event, there is a big emphasis on fun, inclusion, and ‘giving it a go’, so there is lots of costumes and colour: – there is a profusion of ladybirds, bees, rainbow tutus, Where’s Wallys amongst the more ‘serious’ riders.
I wanted to continue the good vibes, but also raise awareness of First Nations experiences. But ‘Decolonise MTB’ was not the right approach for this event.
So I came up with an idea to promote First Nations experiences in a way that was positive and clear, but not confrontational. My idea consisted of a costume that was comfortable to ride it that matched a uniquely decorated bike highlighting my key theme.
To bring my vision to life, I enlisted the help of two incredible women to make my idea happen. A massive thank you to both Alison and Nix for their collaboration!
My Outfit
The outfit centred mainly on a custom-made T-shirt. This was the visually impactful piece and meant I could still ride safety and comfortably. Alison is a creative mate who I have collaborated with on a number of previous projects, including prepping for Bike Hack 19. Alison was integral in producing my T-shirt vision.
The T-shirt was a bright yellow and had connecting circles and indigenous artwork prints on the front and the words ‘celebrating’ over the same indigenous print panel on the back. I specifically chose ‘celebrating’ as a present verb (ie doing) and it was a positive message. The print was sourced from a First Nations art Collective (to support artists) and the other material (black spots and yellow T) were sourced from Opp Shops.
Nix is a proud Quandamooka woman who is highly creative. I had the idea of decorating my bike in a way that combined the approaches of my previous Art Bike Projects CONS_U_Me Blues with the Kids Bikes are Hard Work …but also it needed to be lightweight, snag-free, and still easy to ride during the event.
We used recycled clothes from Opp Shops to decorate the bike in the colours of the Australian Aboriginal flag (red, black, and yellow) by strapping the frame in red and black with yellow hanging tassels (emulating the flag’s yellow sun) in the middle.
We added a large ball under the seat in the Torres Strait Islander colors.
On the handlebars we had a hint of the theme colous for front-facing reference.
We then decorated the helmet to match.
See the stages of development below.
Archie ‘helping’
Before shot
frame wrapping
Torres Strait decoration
In-progress
helmet decoration
helmet test
It was a great project to collaborate with others and it ticked all the important boxes for me like being based on recycling and sustainable principles, increasing awareness for First Nation experiences, creating a new and original outfit to ride in, supporting the event by dressing up and bringing the good vibes, creating something we collectively made that was low-cost, sustainable, and low-tech, and I got to share quality creative time with people I admire.
A massive, big thank you to Alison and Nix – I love what we co-created!
In the next post, I’ll let you know how the event went.
and what does gender and sexuality have to do with it?
We were very excited to have guest presenter Assoc. Prof. Alyson Campbell from the School of Theatre, Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne) to lead us on this curious and provocative journey.
Artist-scholar-makers: Thinking about affect work to queer performance.
My understanding of affect draws on Brian Massumi and cultural theorist Jeremy Gilbert. I’ve built on this general line of thinking to explore more particularly concepts and strategies for queering performance. This all springs from working with Reza Abdoh in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, where I encountered live performance in a way I never had before. Abdoh’s play Bogeyman was dealing with the AIDS pandemic and it has taken me many years to try to find ways to articulate how its queerness was based on something far beyond its content; it was the experience of it, or, in other words, its affect. I’m still trying to understand that interrelationship in my own and others’ work. One strand of this links directly back to Reza in thinking about affect as viral (Viral Dramaturgies, co-edited with Dirk Gindt, 2018) and another strand is as erotohistoriography (Freeman, 2010; e.g. Campbell 2015). As an artist-scholar the whole thing converges in trying to find specificity in language for this (e.g. through musicology/musical thinking, e.g. Campbell 2012) and rehearsal/making strategies.
My question for the session is: What are the gaps in the discourse around affect in performance?
What we did in this session…
… er… how to summarise this session … is very hard… we did so much!
It is so hard to explain all we covered and what stuck for each of us. I loved how Alyson took the time to just think-out-aloud her ideas and explain her motivations, musings, work, and connections – for me, that was so interesting and inspiring (we so rarely have those personal insights as to the process-thinking that goes into academic and performance work!).
I did capture some of what we did, discussed, thought-with, and activated in this session in a few 100-word worldings I wrote from this session. Here are my worldings:
Seek the Affect mechanism.
Freefalling with A/P Alyson Campbell’s Queer Dramaturies. Director process(es) unfolding: pertinent theatre movements, Phenomenology, Massumi’s ‘Affect’, Gormley’s ‘body’s first way of knowing’, Gilbert’s ‘affective specificity’, and Epstein’s ‘shaping affect’. More important than describing affect (as end point), is seeking the mechanism by which it is structured. Not ‘supposed’ to talk about the ‘real’ journey/process/practice. Various maker book think-throughs: Practice-as-research (Practitioners), Affect Explorations (Theory), or Queer Encounters (Personal). More on intersectionality, form and hybridity… maybe queer hybridity? How long does it take for language to move? Pondering practice-theory as contagion or miasma. A juggernaut of multiple threads.
What’s missing in Affect.
With a new artist-scholar friend, we discuss what is missing in Affect. Thoughts disperse and range from uncomfortable school-based moments, to performance making, to the inescapable hard lines of capitalism, to points of deficit in myriad forms. A strong conversational start. Body sameness and what (im)presses. Someone mentions ‘anti-lack-thinking’. I like that idea. I settle into queering beyond what I think and know – and I’m excited by new viral suggestions. We talk of the joys of popping fuchsias and what is learned from migrating bodies. The importance of ‘accepting your in-thereness’ and of (missing) laughter. ‘Not just’ embodied jerks.
Bound up with affect.
I’m leaning into intense inquiries of somatic means and translations. Being led, hand-held, through body-emotion(s) that disregard mental training. I’m ‘bound up’ with affect, constipated by shifting ‘pulling a(part)s’. I’m intrigued by In your face theatre as an attempt to synthesize smaller audiences, funding, and affective capacities – and the aesthetics of what that might mean and do. I see inchoate segregised resistance, near-Punk tendencies, and pre-queering workings (t)here. Not just relying on arguments between characters or choreographies to drive dramatic interest. Activating experiential theatrics and what that actually means when working through ideas, bodies, and hearts.
Grokking 4:48 psychosis.
Moving within/without a binarized sociality bites. Invitations to re(un)see Amelia Carvello’s extraordinary bodies. Being crossed out and knowing the marginalia is where it is at. Meeting a lang-scape for the first time. Considering body-affect as thinking-of-performative ‘affect’, or as queer dramaturgy applied to worlding and how to shape it all. The ‘roomness’ of the room stands out. Grokking 4:48 psychosis. Theories only get you so far, but new meanings and makings lead naturally into methodological spaces, processes, loops, actions, ambiguities, openness and speculations. Uncovering universal ‘truth(s)’ of research-making becomings seasoned with psychological implications and pre-intentional purpose.
Alyson’s main areas of research and supervision are in gender and queer theory/performance, directing and dramaturgy, phenomenological approaches to performance, social justice and disability in the arts. Alyson’s focus is around the representation of women and the nexus of queer theories and feminism. She is committed to developing modes of practice led/as research throughout her teaching at all levels. Alyson is a freelance director and dramaturg with an astounding 30-year career, and teaching credits that feature the School of Creative Arts, the University of Melbourne, Queen’s University Belfast and Brunel University, London.
Nina with Kenly Grey’s Wheel (2021). Image: Nina Ginsberg
This month is Brisbane Festival month.
So this week, I headed down to Metro Arts to check out a wholly bike-inspired, free art exhibition called The Mechanics of Adaptation.
The exhibition was well laid out and had a variety of materials, forms, and mediums across two galleries. Each work was given sufficient space so viewers could walk around the installations and see them from different angles.
I decided to wander through the show first to get a sense of the artworks. It was interesting to see the different techniques used to fuse, fix and set each of the works together. It felt like these were not super technical pieces, which made them more relatable because it felt like anyone could have a go constructing some of these works.
After my initial look around, I grabbed a handout of the exhibition (see details below) which explained a little more of the context behind the exhibition.
The handout and the necessary artist’s name/title/year posted on the walls next to exhibits were the only pieces of info provided at the exhibition.
When I got home and looked for more online, there were heaps of other interesting info about this project! Why wasn’t this extra info promoted at the exhibition?
And the passing mention in the exhibition handout about the ‘collaboration’ was actually a vital part of the whole artistic process and overall project.
The collaboration was the part I found most interesting about this whole project, yet at the exhibition, there was very little info about it.
Online, I found a catalog that gave more details about the project (see below).
This catalog outlines the background and details the collaboration with Traction and Sycamore, which I think is where the real art story is at – see here!
Having established artists running a series of workshops with youths at risk (Traction) and young people living with Autism (Sycamore) to teach artistic and technical using bikes is a brilliant idea – and I love that the final works were being exhibited as part of the Brisbane Arts Festival.
As a visitor to this exhibition, I felt this key aspect of the project was missing.
I would have loved to have seen better recognition/focus in the exhibition about the involvement of the youth groups.
Even so, it was awesome to see more bike art being supported and showcased.
If you are in Brisbane and have the interest -consider popping in and checking it out!
More bike projects and art exhibitions like this one, please!
Deucamp’s artwork changed the course of contemporary art by elevating ordinary objects to the status of art. In 2021, after 10 successful years and four million trips, the Brisbane CityCycle program is ending.
With access to decommissioned bicycles provided by JDDecaux, Metro Arts commission and five local artists to produce new work inspired by these now-defunct bicycles.
This work captures the emerging world of ever-accumulating industrially produced items and the potential for found materials to be incorporated into artworks whilst also inviting a playful attitude into the rarefied context of art galleries.
Today, bicycles also represent the urgency of the need for environmental awareness and sustainability.
Within this context, the artists’ use of the decommission City Cycle bicycles reflects the opportunity for artistic experimentation that connects histories of art to environmental sustainability.
As we move into holiday mode, my thoughts turn to long, lazy afternoons enjoying the rich, inviting, creativity of a thriving bike community. I was nostalgic for a local event something along the lines of Bespoke City. Bespoke City was a super special, one-night-only art and design event held in Sydney some years back. A wonderful reminder of what can be achieved when creative minds come together. For those who missed it, this post explains the event. Here’s to hoping for more bespoke events like this! Enjoy. NG.
Bespoke City. Image: UNSW Newsroom
The Bespoke City event was put on to celebrate a new generation of designers, makers, technologists and innovators who had teamed up with artists to re-imagine Sydney’s streets from the perspective of the cyclist.
Brilliant! There should be more city events like this!
The Bespoke City festival included a series of bike-inspired installations, projections, interactive artworks, unique sculptures, videos, kinetic artworks, demonstrations, and stalls. Curated by Laura Fisher and Sabrina Sokalik, Bespoke City invited audiences to reimagine Sydney’s urban environment.
It was held in a new community space in the heart of Oxford Street. This was the first time the event had ‘spilled out into the streets’ from the UNSW Art & Design Courtyard and Galleries.
Bicycles were central to all the artworks.
Bikes were used to generate light, colour, sound and energy, while other artworks used them as a metaphor for the city itself – reminding us that urban spaces can be deconstructed and remade and that we are all implicated in the politics of public space.
A key aim of the event was to spotlight the bicycle as a humble but brilliant piece of technology, and to share a vision of the city as open to being hacked, remapped and remade.
Bespoke City was part of UNSW Galleries’ First Fridays program, in which the Galleries stayed open late on the first Friday of each month to host lively events engaging in contemporary art and culture.
What a great idea! More, please!
Laura Fisher said Bespoke City appealed to everyone: “This is one for the makers, the pedalers and the whole family.”
Some of the more than 20 Bespoke City artworks, workshops and installations, included:
Pedal powered light mural – Climb on and peel back the layers of the city. See Sydney in flux as your pedalling efforts produce variations in light, colour and space. Artists: Jonathon Bolitho, Jeong Greaves, Jobe Williams, Mackenzie Nix.
Autonomous painting machine – A robot-painter that tracks human movements to create curious images, prompting viewers to think about how machine intelligence is influencing our lives. Artist: Jeffrey Wood
Bicycles that make music – Create a slow groove or some fast electronic beats as you collaborate with other riders to fill the campus with a unique and evolving sound piece. Artists: Milkcrate Events.
Microbiology in the urban wild – Examine the city at the molecular level using a bike-powered laboratory created by the first Citizen Scientist molecular biology lab. Artists: BioFoundry
A virtual ride from Paddington to Rozelle – ‘Veloscape’ is an immersive video work in which your pedalling takes you on a traverse of the city. Artists: Volker Kuchelmeister and Laura Fisher
Giant data visualisation – Watch the ebb and flow of rider movements around Sydney, with a specially commissioned work inspired by the City’s cycling data. Artist: Hanley Weng & Xavier Ho.
There were also lots of other things to do, like get a free bicycle tune-up, join the guerrilla knitters, make some custom reflective gear or get some food from one of the Cargo Bike businesses and pop up stalls.
Yes – a wonderful event that ticks so many boxes: artistic, fun, high community engagement, questioning urban design and mobility, bike-focused, collaborative, free, public event…(*sigh*).
I’d love to see more events like this during the holidays.
Ti wouldn’t be too much of a stretch given that most major cities already have some kind of public, night-time bike events like Ride the Night Brisbane or some kind of innovative bike infrastructure like the Starry Night Bike Path.
So let’s showcase more art and design collaborative artworks on two wheels!
I am a community bike rider and researcher living in Brisbane Australia. I live with a gorgeous kelpie named Zoe and a bike named Kissime and we have spent many happy years riding bikes together.
I have a blog and we regularly post about dogs and bikes, see for example:
We recently came across your Etsy page and saw your handmade dog-and-bike plates.
And we love them!
You have a good selection of dog breeds including Daschunds, Retrievers, Boston Terriers and Dalmatians. Some of them have hats or scarves and they ride different bikes.
Very savvy to have different sizes and shapes of plates, platters and serving trays, too.
We love your other bike riding animals – especially the elephants, flying pigs and octopus!
Zoe was delighted to hear customers can custom order for a ‘girl dog’ too – but wondered how that might change the illustration.
Congrats on your impressive range of other designs including, nautical and underwater themes, butterflies, farm animals, florals and botanicals, Alice in Wonderland, heaps of land and sea animals, insects, anatomical body parts and metrics, skulls, and of course bees!
We appreciate the effort you take in hand making each plate in your US studio – and that you have created endearing designs that are quirky and whimsical and have that ‘ye olde timey’/vintage style about them.
On your Esty site, it says your bike-and-dog plates are: artful, fabulously glossy, and highly durable range of kitchenware made out of ThermoSaf® Composite Polymer, which is also:
Microwave-safe.
Melamine-free.
BPA-Free.
Dishwasher-safe.
Formaldehyde-free.
Break-resistant.
FDA approved for food contact and oven-safe to 300 degrees (45 min. or less).
We saw you do request orders too: awesome for custom matching for decor, colour, bike and dog breed preference, use and style.
Will kelpies be added to add to the range? Zoe is happy to help if needed!
We know there are many people who love riding bikes and love dogs – thanks for offering such beautiful, original products that celebrate our combined passions!
We wish you all the very best for you and your business.
Keep up the amazing platefuls of bikes and dogs!
Warm regards, tail wags, and muddy trails.
Zoe the dog, Kissime the bike, and Nina the rider.
Dear Reader. If this is your first time on this blog – it is best not to start with the post below. This post is a disruptive edit expert-iment that begins ‘in the middle’. It will not make much sense if you’ve not seen some of my previous posts. Some of these posts (like the Geography and Collective Memories post – which you should check out) are getting increasingly ‘loose’ and ‘messy’ and working with ‘in-progress’ sensemaking – thus leading into more disruptive edits like this one. If you are new, perhaps start with the ‘clean and tidy’ version of this post – it is called Mother’s Day 2021 and is the precursor-basis for the exploration below.
If you are up for something different, read on!
*NB: this post is best read on a desktop – might be a little (more) odd if on a mobile device*
This post is not what it seems…well…. it is… and it isn’t.
What started out as a ‘normal’ post morphed into something else. Usually, blog posts are straightforward: informative, factual, opinion, or instructional. While I was writing on the topic ‘Mothers Day’ for this post – disruptive ideas and opportunities emerged. So… instead of ignoring or disregarding them, I embraced them. You could say this was also an experiment in applying diffraction thinking-doing (my theoretical approach I am using for my PhD) to other-than academic writing. This is new territory for me (to write) and for you (to read). What diffraction writing means here, is that instead of only sharing the usual polished final blog post, I’ve experimented with folded into the blog post my thinking-process-editing as I am writing it – a kind of disruptive writing-with blog post process. It might be a little weird and may or may not work. there will be typos and mistakes – some parts will just be notes or ‘snaps’ – resist the urge to edit for ‘correctness’. But I like the idea of doing something new and challenging what I think writing, especially such public writing! is or should be, going ‘beyond’, and being (more publicly) transparent with writing-as-process expert-iments. To try and show how this is working, the blog post content is in black text and the process content is in superscript like this. It would be easier to do this in a word document with track change comments which I have included below as a file for those interested in seeing it, but the here challenge is to see how it works within the functionality of a Word Press.org blog post.
Insert image of mum. Use creative commons to support alt artists. Attribute/link to promote photographer – preferably female. Use an image of other-than mainstream blond mum stereotype (in this case a redhead!) = have some sort of diversity to show a greater range of mums (blond mums already have a strong presence and representation online). See ‘undisrupted’ version of this post for alt (M)othering image
Mother’s Day: Give more thoughtful presence and presents
8th May is Mother’s Day.
Happy Mother’s Day mums – and dads and significant others and carers who also fill maternal roles. Dads and other/carers: I added this is it did not feel right to only single out ‘mums’ as there are many ‘others’ who are not officially a’ mother’ – yet who equally fulfil a similar role. A homage to my commitment to better recognizing the fluid and diverse experiences of what ‘mothering’ is – and I was raised by my father who was a consummate ‘mother’ and father and many other things…
For a previous Mother’s Day, I wrote about the issues I had with some Mother’s Day ‘suggested gifts for cycling mums’.
If you haven’t read my post Happy Fearful Mother’s Day Cycling Mums! check it out here – it’s well worth the read!Internal Hyperlink: I link back to my own blog to promote past writing and keep readership ‘inside’ my website where – also helped remind me of the amount of work I have already done and share from the archives … I LOVE the image I sourced for this hyperlinked post
I appreciate the sentiment of Mother’s Day (and Father’s Day) in taking time to recognise and celebrate the input and work mums do. I didn’t want this post to be ‘too negative’ or ‘down with Mum’s day’ – that’s not what I think or mean – I wanted some balance and make sure I acknowledge the positives of Mother’s Day.
I like to think that mums are always appreciated as they are on Mother’s Day (ie for the other 364 days of the year as well) – not just one day a year … anyhoo…
Mums have it especially? tough.
Women are advantaged in society and mothers in particular face enduring and unfair social and corporate pressures and constraints around childcare, unpaid labour, taking the load for emotional labour (the unpaid job men still don’t understand) and ‘being a good mother’, inequitable divisions of household labour, the hidden and overlooked value-cost-effort of stay-at-home mums and that working mums (well…all women) on average make only 82 cents for every dollar earned by men.
Christine Carter articulates these frustrations well in her piece: All I want for Mother’s Day is an equitable division of labour. Wanted to synthesis some facts into the post AND source more widely (ie not only read academic lit) AND get some mums voices in here. I’m hyperconscious that I’m not a mother, so am only presenting my POV on gender issues – not commenting on what it is like to BE a mum as that is not my direct, personal lived experience so I don’t feel comfortable commenting on that – so I made a point to look for mums who have written on this topic and found this great article on emotional labor. It fit in beautifully. So funny – I had a conversation with a dear friend on this very topic…I think I’ll flip her this link as well! And yes… it is ‘a thing’…still!
With much work needed to address these systemic gender inequities, Mother’s Day is an opportunity to recognise these issues and celebrate mums and other female carers.
Traditionally, this means breakfast in bed, flowers, or lunches out with loved ones. link back here to ‘presents’ and conventional Mother’s Day approaches to lead into my final takeaway idea/content.
For cycling mums, it’s an opportunity to think more thoughtfully about the cycling presence and presents we give to mums and what these ‘gifts’ communicate, expect and perpetuate.
As I was writing this post, I’ve changed the title a few times. The changes reflect the different ‘moves’ I went through in writing the content – so in the spirit of transparent disruption – I am including that process here as well. It was at this stage of writing the post that I looked a the title and thought: ‘that title doesn’t fit anymore. The following section is a brief behind the scene thinking-editing-doing that went on at this stage. For reading ease I have not super-scripted this section despite it all being thinking-writing-as-process content.
I like the image above. It presents a not blond, white mum(gender?) House is a little messy and not presenting a ‘perfectly’ curated photo/family and the black LHS is suggestive of the ‘dark side’ of family life – fits well with overall post themes. It also helps break up blog content and helps separate the next section which is a new and different idea/focus.
Title: re-writing and re-righting
Initially the title was: Mother’s Day –more thoughtful presents, please!
It was tight and communicated the initial content main ideas. But it only named the ‘presents’ aspect, which was a very minor idea and didn’t fully capture the relational, non-commercial call to action I was putting forward.
So the next edit was: Mother’s Day –more thoughtful presents and presence, please!
I liked the homonym and alliteration of presents and presence – it fitted well with what I wanted to highlight. I looked at the order of the two keywords ‘presents’ and ‘presence’ and wonder how changing their placement might change the impact of the meaning of my overall message. I swapped them around to see that changed. I wanted to start with the known (presents) and end/lead into the blog main idea (presence) – so that was the final word order I chose.
Then: Mother’s Day – more thoughtful presence and presents, please!
So I removed the: , please. It is a stronger statement – declarative and instructional, not a request and thus leaving open the final decision as to whether to act on this ‘request’ or not to other-than-the-mother-saying it .
Note to self: remove (more): , please(s).
Apply liberally – in general and elsewhere.
So then it was: Mother’s Day – more thoughtful presence and presents!
This was closer to the sentiment I wanted to convey. It is short and punchy and fits into (no more than) two lines of text as a heading – which is a good ‘grab’ for the WordPress RHS margin widget ‘Recent Posts’. The exclamation mark as an end made it read more of an imperative – but perhaps a little shouty – so I removed it. But then it was left hanging. I also wanted to give some notice as to the type of presentation/format this also helps with search features later on So I added: (Disruptive Edit) at the end. I added ‘Give’ at the start as I wanted to include mention of the action that was the crux of the post giving is a nice thing to do! I wanted the title to include someone doing something – and it read-felt much better with ‘give’. Then I stopped. gotta know when to stop! send it out now – share your process work, resist being ‘correct’ ‘right’ and ‘good’ just get it out there – it is in-process and raw so no more tinkering!
Final title: Mother’s Day: Give more thoughtful presence and presents (Disruptive Edit)
..then finish the blog content and close on a positive!
Interesting to note that WordPress backend drafting notifications (like the readability analysis, SEO, suggested ‘revisions’) are going crazy pining me to check and recheck. I have a list of sad red face emojis letting me know NEEDS IMPROVEMENT! – its the algorithm reminding me that this type of post ‘won’t work’ and is ‘not normal’ writing and formatting. I am ingoring them all.
(*PHEW*)
…and that dear reader is a little sneak-peak into some of the in-process ideas, considerations and edits that happen during the construction of blog posts!
Thanks for coming a long for this experimental ride into a disruptive edit!
I am recovering from a 3-week intensive marking bender.
My eyes are itchy, my lower back aches and my approachablity is incendiary.
A tight uni turnaround to mark 28 x 6,000-word research reports and 28 x 2,000-word workplace assessments (both Masters level and worth 80% of the total course!) PLUS 21 x 3,300-word undergrad mixed-method research reports (worth 50%). Epic!
I am grateful for the work. Like many others, I’ve had no uni teaching or lecturing for Trimeter 1 due to university COVID response measures. No sessional work, only marking. Thank goodness for my educational consultancy. Tough times.
The students worked hard and so did I. There’s a lot riding on these assessments – and I take the job seriously. I’m not the kind of academic who breezes over assessments and gives 3 comments like: good or need more work here and interesting point– what the hell kind of feedback is that? So unhelpful! I am NOT that kind of marker – I hate that shit! So, I put in the work and gave each assessment my full attention.
So in a similar mood for @Artcrank, I looked for a new source to lift the spirits and remind me of the creative playfulness betwixt bikes, community, action, spaces, materiality, bodies and brazenness.
Here is a 100-word worlding I wrote after seeing @bikeart.gallery for the first time.
I love bikeart, too.
Eyes itchy, shoulders aching and approachablity is incendiary. Time for bike art. @bikeart.gallery – newly discovered on Instagram. Stickers, prints, icons, charcoals, photos, cartoons, designs, and paper cuts. I love bikes and I love art, too. Some super progressive bikeart, others not so. Hypersexualized disembodied females with-on bikes (really? still?!) – cringe-worthy. Elsewhere, I marvel at super spunky rider couples, surreal adventure rides, fantastical bici creaturing, and cheeky postmodern velo classical reinterpretations. A few memes. Close-ups, portraits and movement. Audaciousness. Lego, flames, tattoos, air travel, and (Fr)eddie Merxc(ury). @jctdesign’s spontaneous napkin doodle ‘unplug and ride your bike’ is good advice.
Image: @andy_warlord
Image: Rachel aka @rachpetru!
Image: IG @artbike.gallery
Image: @bikeart.gallery
Image: @AlvaroLopeMoralesQuevado
Image: @tadapota
Image: @bikeart.gallery
Image: @bazasportpenza
Image: @josekoebrugge
Image: @abphart
Image:
Image: @hello_mrbaker
Image: IG @artbike.gallery
Image: @daemoncycling
Image: @kosuke_masuda_5
Image: @lbbjkt
Image: @bikeart.gallery
Image: @eila_kai
Image: @davidlgill
Image: “Organic Growth” art installation (umbrellas & bicycle tires) by @izaskunchinchilla (account not longer exists) at Govenor’s Island.
In this post, we are looking at a very specific subset of bike tattoo and that is – bike tattoos that have specifically detailed colour or design included in the bike wheels … or what I call … ‘wheelie’ specific bike tattoos.
I scoured the internet and rolled through hundreds of cool, funny and (at times) questionable bike tattoos to find 5 solid representations of tattoos that have details in the bike wheels as their central focus.
In each of these cases, colour and form was used as the central cohesive design feature.
Let’s have a look…
@Mountainbike on Pintrest
@Mountainbike on Pintrest
The first two tattoos (see above) have a similar aesthetic which uses a sunset or landscape scenery as the key motif. I put two versions of this design here as the gentle difference in colours has quite a significant impact on the ‘feel’ of the overall tattoo, yet the symbolism is equally clear and meaningful. Having mountains on the side and a river or track running through the middle helps accentuate the perspective of the ‘never-ending great outdoors’ so desired by bike riders. This iconography is made all the more striking when contained within the circular frame of both wheels which (also) forms a simple black bike frame silhouette with no background. Interestingly, I sourced both these tattoos from the same location, which makes me wonder if this specific design is ‘a mountainbike thang.’
Image: Bicycling.com
The third tattoo (above) is more of a whimsical, flowery bike design interpretation made more impactful with the use of the two strongly contrasting and complementary colors of blue and red. This is an unsual and particular tattoo that stands out for its unconventional and creative design – a bold choice for a permanent tattoo!
Scott Schmidt on Pintrest
The fourth tattoo (above) is a calf single wheel tattoo highlighted by the distinctive red and black diagrammatic colouring that really makes it pop. This tattoo is dramatic in its almost tribal-style patterning. The composition is controlled, yet creative with clean and authoritative lines that clearly accentuate the ‘wheel-ness’ of the design. The strong outlines are offset by the red 5-petaled flower at the centre of the wheel, hinting to the softer interior of the ‘hard-wheeled’ rider-owner who is bold enough to wear it.
Image: Next luxury
The last tattoo (above) looks like it takes its cue from graphic design using both colour, texture and geometric patterning to good effect. On closer inspection, it almost looks like the texture of puff paints (it did make me second guess whether this was a ‘real’ tattoo) or maybe the tattoo had just been applied and was brand new, hence the raised (or skin reactive) beveling of work.
Tattoos – and more specifically bike tattoos – are not for everyone. But there are many people who love riding and want to celebrate, share and commemorate bikes with tattoos. And these ‘wheelie’ bike tattoos are just one example of people do this.
Which begs the question:
If you were to get a bike tattoo, where and what would you get?
