David Byrne, front-man of the 1980s band the Talking Heads, was known for on-stage performance art as well as music. As a regular New York City bicyclist, he is now providing practical public art along the city’s streets.
Byrne has designed a series of hip bike racks. The nine racks were recently installed. They are intended to serve as temporary, contemporary art, but the steel tubing is secure enough for locking up. The racks are “contextually dependent.” One, along Wall Street, is a large dollar sign. A mud flap outline of a woman was placed along Times Square, in recognition of the square’s less family-friendly past.
“It was important to me that these new racks be the same thickness and material as the existing racks—to help identify them as practical bike racks and not just modern art,” Byrne said in a NYC Department of Transportation press release. “The locations about as perfect as one could imagine — Wall Street for the dollar sign and Bergdorf’s for the giant high heel!”
The racks, funded by Byrne, will be used for 11 months. The temporary use avoids the city’s extensive review of permanent public artworks.
New York was designated a “Bike Friendly Community” by the League of American Bicyclists in February. The number of bicyclists in the city has increased 77 percent since 2000, and the city hopes to double that number by 2015.
Photos from the New York Department of Transportation website.
