Anonymous Bike

Tags: #exhibition

Just before Christmas my show opened at Culture Exchange, Graz. I'm sharing the space with Pflanze mit Hut and the work is all new analog photography, hand printed gelatin silver photographs and polaroids.

As an avid cyclist, I was interested in exploring the way that humans interact with the bicycle machine, the places where touch exists and where human power is transformed into movement. I wanted to bring out the sensual and human forms of the bicycle, contrasting soft curves with hard oxidized surfaces, and fix them back into silver in the photograph.

The work reflects on human and metal, in the form of both touch with the bicycle and the silver gelatin photographic process. Sensuous curves are found in hard and oxidized surfaces and re-fixed in silver.

In addition to the hand printed black and white series, there are three smaller works from polaroids. I was interested in using polariod photographs as they are a photographic medium traditionally associated with personal use. They were often used as an easy way to personal moments in an analog format. Due to the ease of use, the almost instant return of the image, and privacy as the image appears without needing to take the film to a lab, they have also been used for less mainstream purposes such as amateur nude photography and as audition photos and souvenirs by exotic dancers and models. The resulting directional harsh flash lighting and overexposure created an instantly recognizable aesthetic. These are contrasted with the "fine art" black and white images in the show, featuring the same bicycle as the subject.