Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

Bikes, with their cute mechanical simplicity and efficient way of using of energy, fascinate the engineer in me. Combined with the thrill of blurring past the seemingly static world with fleshy swirling feet grafted to steel and rubber, bike riding confuses me for a bit into thinking I’m a mechanized version of myself. You know, a Philbot. So, this last weekend when nearly 180 of my mechanized brothers assembled in Monaco for the start of the 2009 Tour de France,  I shifted my cyborg eye away from art and marketing for a few hours to watch my favorite sporting event and cheer on the race for the coveted Maillot jaune.

As you all are hopefully aware, the leader of many a mechanized-two-wheeler assault peloton, Lance Armstrong, has come out of retirement and is competing in the 2009 Tour de France to promote cancer awareness through his Livestrong organization. What you all may not be aware of is that Lance has a thing for art and has commissioned some pretty notable artists and designers to create bikes for him.

For example, Marc Newson, whose designs were included in our recent exhibition, European Design Since 1985, is responsible for the graphic treatment on this time trial bike.

The creator of the iconic Obama “Hope” poster, Shepard Fairey, was also tapped for a graphic treatment for Mellow Johnny (Lance’s nickname).

And while there’s no image of the bike yet (that I can find), young British artist, Damien Hirst, is also set to chime in with a bike design for Lance. Stay tuned with a Google search and Lance’s Twitter feed.

In the meantime, my mechanized brother, Chalkbot, who is faithfully chalking the roads of the tour with LIVESTRONG text messages sent to 46453, wants you to check out some of his handiwork and follow him on Twitter.

• Tags: art blog, chalkbot, Damien Hirst, IMA Blog, Indianapolis Museum of Art, lance armstrong, marc newson, Museum Blog, Shepard Fairey
 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 11:51 am and is filed under Art, Current Events, Marketing, New Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.