Peripheral Vision: A Chicago Perimeter ride project (2015-ongoing)
A selection of photographs by Curtis Locke

“Here’s the three Rs — Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.” — Mark e. Smith (the Fall)

Is the presence of a bicycle in an art gallery an inevitable duchampian gesture, or is it sometimes just freud’s cigar? A bicycle without a cyclist is simply a potential ride, while a cyclist without a bicycle is a bi-ped.

“All is in flux, nothing stays still.” — Heraclitus

The chicago perimeter ride is a fleeting, ephemeral yet concrete street traffic performance staged site-specific on the outskirts and along the city limits of chicago. The streets serve as a fringe theater where the methodical, methodized actor-cyclist performs his routine. This ritual ride is repeated like a meditation, a prayer, poem, a song.

“Repetition is a form of change.” — Brian Eno

The route is routinized but varies from time to time. This routine act, spinning bicycle and body, tracing boundaries and memories, traverses 90+ miles through chicago’s built environment. There have been 97 performances to date, both clock-wise and counter, encountering 39 of Chicago’s 77 community areas and 30 adjacent municipalities, covering over 8,900 miles. During this same span another 10,000+ miles were pedaled outside the parameters of this project. These cyclical edge performances, fluid and mechanical, topographical but not isochronous, are typically six to seven hours in duration. Completing a circuit, I physically echo previous rides while simultaneously feel the invisible pull of (and anxiously anticipate) the next cycle round, looping endless endless.

The photographic canvases in this exhibition contextualize the space, the cityscape, in which the exercise is negotiated and performed — the lakefront, Burnham greenway, brownfields, arterial and residential streets, barber shops, hot dog stands, liquor stores and tap rooms, tamale carts, taverns, tire shops, taquerias, corner stores / bodegas, car washes, auto Parts & repair, stranded boats and trailers, pink walls, graffiti scrawls, virgin Marys and of Guadalupe, pylons and bridges, railroad crossings and church crosses, the chicago and calumet rivers, the Sanitary and Ship Canal, Wolf lake, frozen beaches and on-ramp interstate wetlands, banquet halls, pizza joints, beauty salons, sub shops, paleterias and neverias, day care centers and cleaners, motels and shrimp shacks, travel agencies and print shops, Nicky’s — the home of the big baby, a power plant and a comfort station, American Legion Posts and tanks along the border, Dinette World and dollar stores, joyerias and jewel Stores, muffler men and upholstery shops, and the countless apartments above the shop or bar. given the scope and scale of this project and its highly mobile nature, I hope to present multiple iterations at various locations throughout the city over time.

The two bikes on display, a 1987/1988 Peugeot Cologne and a late 1980s/early 1990s Quattro Assi, are two of the four machines on which the 2015-2016 perimeter rides were performed upon. The french-built Peugeot, made specifically for the German market for just two years, is constructed of Reynolds 531, the legendary steel tubing of Tour de France champions. the Italian-made, golden anodized aluminum “Four Aces” was a custom-designed rare bird built for a small bicycle shop in Texas. The two other bikes employed are a 1986/1987 titanium Litespeed and a 2003 carbon fiber/aluminum Colnago Dream.

In conjunction with the closing of the show in late March, I will invite all that are interested to join me on a guided perimeter ride starting in Oak Park at Compound Yellow.

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Compound Yellow, Curtis Locke, Oak Park, Peripheral Vision: A chicago Perimeter ride project