Bikes in Back Space

BALLARAT Art Bikes is an initiative of the City of Ballarat that merges sport with the municipality’s Creative City Strategy.

The artworks are made from recycled and upcycled materials sourced from the Ballarat’s YMCA ReCrancked program and now they have rehomed at the Back Space Gallery.

Six local artists were commissioned by council to create 12 bikes, one by each artist and one in conjunction with a community group.

All 12 bikes started life on Sturt Street as artistic signposts for the 2019 FedUni Road National Championships which transformed the street into the circuit for the criterium races.

Now in the gallery’s small white space the base colours, pre-determined by council to match in with the Road Nats coveted green and gold, compete with adornments of pinks, purples and blues vibrating on the artist’s bikes.

Papier mâché dogs sit on bike seats and in baskets on Maggie Dannatt’s Art dog’s bike.

Melinda Muscat, who co-ordinated the exhibition, describes her Florart bike as a bower bird effort festooned with happy flowers, fruit and bits and bobs.

The monstrous giraffe bike created by Zlatko Balazic and the kids group he helped only just fits in the gallery’s far left corner.

CDs emblazoned with gold studs cover the wheels of the CMY – Centre for Multi-Cultural Youth – co-creation with Miss Muscat.

A team of size and seven-year-olds from Alfredton Primary School after school care fastened colourful whirligigs to embellish the bike they worked on with artist Robert Ramsay.

The exhibition is open Thursday to Sunday 12pm to 4pm until Sunday, 27 January.

The bikes will be then be displayed at the Ballarat Cycle Classic – a fundraiser for the Fiona Elsey Cancer Research Institute – on Sunday, 17 February.