California artists Mark Grieve and Ilana Spector recently constructed this incredible towering obelisk made entirely out of bikes on a street corner in Santa Rosa. Dubbed Cyclisk, the monument is an ode to bike culture constructed from 340 bicycles and one tricycle.
The 10,000 pound, 65 foot-tall behemoth was, strangely enough, built with help from Nissan. Apparently, Santa Rosa’s “1% for art” law requires major construction projects to donate money to public art projects. Nissan is building a dealership in the city, so it chose to contribute cash to the $37,000 piece of artwork.
Regardless of the project’s background, we’re happy to see old bike parts being put to good use. As Spector noted in a statement, “Collecting unusable parts from the debris piles of nonprofit community bike projects has proven to be a win-win; community bike DIY places are thrilled unusable parts are not becoming land fill and the City is psyched the sculpture will solidify Santa Rosa as bike-friendly.”
Via Wired Gadget Lab
Photos © Ilana Spector
One of the reasons I still like this town.
No wonder Nissan sponsored this ludicrous ego statement – as emc2mm said, its a monument to the death of the bicycle, and a celebration of waste. All those wonderful stories – the miles cycled – heartlessly imprisoned into this anti-natural form, that summons images of robotic phalluses or Egyptian slave labour. Unless its supposed to be ironic?
Oh the scared bicycle as a disposable commodity. Yes some elevate the bicycle to the savior of the planet. Yet it is still fills land fills.
This misses the mark. The pile of bikes is a head stone for the death of the bikes, An obelisk has information on its exterior to act as a guide to all a type of universal knowledge, this shows how mass consumption, waste, and low product performance results in trash. I am unclear how this celebrates a town and or its bike worthlessness. This in not recycling, Recycling would result in new material – new bikes, or something useful – re purposed. One can make the empire state building out of beer cans, but it does not celebrate the building, or the creation of the building, or the energy, or the creativity – only you can use a given material to make a shape. I think something is missing. The amount of entrapped energy, screams waste. Was that the intent?
This is outrageous! the compression is the landmark signature of Cesar Baldaccini (1921-1998). Whether those so called artists know his life time work and it is plagiary or they don’t and they should (at least) learn contemporary art history.
Would community bike centers have landfilled recyclable metal scraps? That seems hard to believe… Still, it’s a likable piece of public art, which is a good use of materials.