Yesterday I installed a selection of Bike Portraits taken in Bristol in the showroom on College Green for the Bristol Cycle Festival. It launches on Friday 16th. More on the Bristol blog.
My exhibition at LMNH happily corresponded with the Great British Bunt Off. The results of which were left on display.
The Private View Bike Ride started at Two Wheels Good on a gorgeous sunny day with 25 people turning up on an amazing range of bicycles. The peloton featured cargo bikes, a recumbent, penny farthing, tallbike, fixed gear, flying gate, paper bicycle, tourers, hybrids and racers. Bike sized bunting affixed to stewards bikes added to the colour.
The motley peloton set off along Stoke Newington Church Street and down Albion Road to PUSH Cycles where we stopped to view four portraits. For some riders it provided a good opportunity to bike shop.
Back on our bikes we headed east, across Kingsland Road, along Sandringham Road and down to Wilton Way until we arrived at London Fields Cycles on Mare Street.
At London Fields Cycles we had snacks (muesli bars, juice and water) while looking at the eight photos on display.
We cycled on through London Fields, around Broadway Market (which was heaving with people and stalls) and over Regent’s Canal to Lock 7 where we viewed seven portraits.
Four down, one to go. We headed into town along Hackney Road and Columbia Road crossing over Kingsland Road and running parallel to Old Street until we reached Look Mum No Hands.
We arrived at Look Mum No Hands to find half the cafe reserved for us, twelve portraits to look at and enough cake to satisfy even the hungriest cyclist. Thankfully more people joined us at the cafe to help.
We stayed at Look Mum No Hands until we had at least dented the cake mountain, we played on different bikes in nearby side streets, told stories and drank beer into the early evening.
The purpose of the ride was to showcase the portraits, and the point of the exhibition was to represent the rich and diverse cultures of cycling in Hackney today. The event provided lots of opportunities to network, talk about the broader research project and engage people who otherwise might not get to see the work that we are doing and contribute. Thankyou to everyone for participating in the research and coming along for the ride.
Many thanks also goes to UEL’s Creative Community Development fund for supporting the event.
Britt took lots of great footage of the ride and the film will be posted here soon.
Tomorrow is the Private View Bike Ride. We are starting at 2pm at Two Wheels Good, 165 Stoke Newington Church Street London N16 0UL. From there we will cycle to PUSH cycles, then London Fields Cycles, onto Lock 7 and we will arrive at Look Mum No Hands around 4ish.
The weather is looking good.
See you there.
The Bike Portrait exhibition has been featured in:
We are also featured on the websites of the bike shops/cafes such as:
Look Mum No Hands
Many thanks to Gareth Greene from UEL Press Office for assisting with this aspect of the project.
I have been making bike sized bunting for the launch on saturday.
Next we installed the portraits at Two Wheels Good, 165 Stoke Newington Church Street London N16 0UL. They made us coffee and tweeted about the exhibition and ride while we installed. As the Private View Bike Ride starts here at 2pm on Saturday, they kindly offered water bottles to the first ten people to turn up. And as if this wasn’t enough, they also took photos for us. Again, like the other locations we found ourselves climbing over benches, laying photos on the floor and working on unusual surfaces, such as cutting out labels on the tops of chairs. We also constantly went in and out of the shop to check the height and angle of photos which made the door bell ring almost constantly for a while. However none of this phased the owners and mechanics who must be used people coming into their store doing/demanding strange things.
Britt measures up around the window framing
Collaboration
There was a lot of climbing onto things
View from inside
View from outside
EDIT: We were asked by Two Wheels Good to put up more images as they had great feedback from customers and passers by. So, Britt and I packed up all the remaining materials and headed there on the morning of the launch to install two more images.
Today, we installed the exhibition at PUSH cycles at 35c Newington Green N16 9PR. This was the smallest space we were working in and we tried our hardest not to intrude too much in the normal operations of the store. Like the other stores we were greeted warmly by everyone and lots of beautiful bikes were moved to give us space to work. We installed four images here, taking up both windows.
Getting set up
Tools of the trade
Working out the best combinations
Making labels on the service desk
Labels
Finished!
Getting started
Working out the best combinations of portraits
Tools, comments book, labels and postcards
Portrait of Adam in the corner
Putting everything back to order
Britt making finishing touches
Finished!
Installing an exhibition at London Fields Cycles (LFC) provided the unique experience of working with window dresser, Barley Massey. Barley is an independent designer and owner of Fabrications, a textile shop, studio and workshop on Broadway Market. She has been working with the LFC for years, creating innovative ways of representing local cycling cultures. (We will hopefully be showcasing some of her past work on this blog.) Barley, Britt and I worked together in the months leading up to the installation to produce a display that encompassed the entire window and was reflected in the product for sale in the shop.
Working inside the window
Barley tying knots at great heights
Measuring everything
Photos installed
