Bicycle wheel, paper, laminate, wood
28″ x 28″ x 12″
1994
In this multimedia piece, Spoke ‘n’ Words, the artist fuses the fond childhood memory of exploring his hometown on a bicycle with the adult experience of a cross-country bicycle trip. As a boy, the artist and his friends would use a clothespin to affix a baseball card to the bicycle frame such that a slap-slap-slap would be created with each momentary contact of the passing spokes in the spinning wheel — one of the signature sounds of summer. As an adult, the artist kept a journal of a two-wheeled trip from Utah to New Jersey that spanned five weeks and more than 2,000 miles. The handwritten text from that journal is now superimposed on the cards, which contain maps of the very cities and geography he passed through, and the cards are attached to an old bicycle wheel. Boy to man, neighborhood to the world. Spoke ‘n’ Words reminds us that the travels of life can take many forms as well as many directions.
– Brian Adams, Redwood City, California