Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Disembodied Art Courtesy of David Byrne



My roommate is a serious biker. For her job (and anything else she chooses to do) she bikes about fifty miles a day! I, too, love biking but if I hit ten miles a day I'd be amazed.

Anyway, she sent me an e-mail about these new bike racks in New York City. She is excited to see such lively and colorful accoutrements just for bikers.

I wonder why a pornulated female body must be part of the city's art and biking culture? Why choose that particular form out of the thousands if not millions of alternatives? For context purposes please see Melissa McEwan's many posts on disembodied things.

If I had to lock my precious bike to this rack (no pun intended) regularly, all I'd be able to think about is how female bodies are quite literally turned into objects for others' use.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

...because women and their bodies are property, don't you know. [/sarcasm]

Shaina said...

Wow, those are really cool actually.

Cortney said...

I think some of them are really neat too. It is a great idea and a way to get people to recognize bicycles as a hip, functional and practical mode of conveyance. I just wonder why they need to use the faceless, disembodied, sexualized caricature of a female form.