Artists shift gears to build with bicycle parts
By Mary Houlihan Staff Reporter/mhoulihan@suntimes.com November 29, 2011 7:22PM
Artist Dan Price, who teaches at the School of the Art Institute, calls the project “an interesting challenge.”
SRAM PART PROJECT
◆ 6 p.m. Wednesday
◆ Gallery 1028, 1028 N. Hooker
◆ $134
◆ (312) 664-3836; sram.com/partproject
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Updated: January 1, 2012 8:18AM
Asking artists to create sculptures from high-tech bike parts could only come from a mind that loves both art and bikes.
David Zimberoff, the marketing guru at SRAM, a Chicago company that manufactures bicycle components, fits the bill. Looking for a way to celebrate the company’s 25th anniversary, he came up with the idea of a juried show of sculptures made from bicycle parts.
The SRAM pART PROJECT, featuring 46 works by artists from around the country, can be viewed Wednesday night at Gallery 1028 on Goose Island. All pieces will be auctioned off; bids can be placed at the event or online (sram.com/partproject/auction.php) until 9 p.m. Proceeds will benefit World Bicycle Relief, an organization that provides bikes for people in rural Africa and Sri Lanka.
“I wanted to break out of the norm and create a fun fund-raiser,” Zimberoff said. “We don’t make bikes; we make bike parts. And now the parts are also art.”
Zimberoff partnered with Milwaukee artist Terrence Coffman to assemble a list of 350 artists from around the country. The 46 artists who responded were given a box with 100 bike parts; they had to use at least 25 in their piece.
“I’m used to building things out of found objects, but here was a box full of shiny new stuff,” said artist Dan Price, who teaches sculpture at the School of the Art Institute. “It seemed like an interesting challenge.”
Price’s sculpture was inspired by the “push toys” he saw kids create out of “bits and pieces of nothing” in South Africa, where he taught in the mid-’90s. “It’s a descendant of those toys,” he said.
The artist receiving top honors in the juried exhibition will be awarded a trip to Africa to visit people whose lives have been changed by the gift of a World Bicycle Relief bike. The admission to Wednesday’s event, $134, is the cost for World Bicycle Relief to donate one bicycle.
The organization was founded by F.K. Day, who along with his brother, Stanley, established SRAM as a leader in its field.
“We thought we could leverage our expertise in the bike industry to make bikes that would connect people in remote areas with health care, education and jobs,” Day said. “The bike industry is small compared to other industries, but we have this tool that directly impacts the bottom of the economic pyramid. It’s a magical key.”
The impact was so deep and immediate in Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami that the group was encouraged by relief agencies to replicate the program in Africa. To date, more than 90,000 bikes have been distributed.
While artists targeted this year leaned more toward sculpture, Zimberoff says he hopes to make the event even broader next year. But one thing will remain constant: the bike parts.
“Studies show that bike art appreciates faster than most art,” he said, laughing. “I don’t know if that’s true, but these pieces are pretty cool.”
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