If you find yourself in Harvard Square any time before September 9, you may stumble upon multi-media artist Nat Reed’s striking yet simple new exhibit “Bikes Move Us” at the intersection of Mass Ave and Linden Street. Walk along the three windows, and you’ll notice found bike parts masquerading as furniture, wheels that both spin and draw themselves, and helmets protecting fragile lightbulbs. As part of the Behind VA Shadows project, Reed’s exhibit is the first of its kind hosted in 25/8 artspace and curated by Yolanda He Yang. It’s not only free to the public but open all day every day. At night, the blunt and mechanic pieces are bathed in a warm, almost romantic glow. Reed talked to Sonia Richter about her love for bikes and their role in her work in a similar way — warmly, almost romantically.
WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND AS AN ARTIST/BIKER?
I’ve been biking since I came to Boston to go to school at Mass Art in 2019. I bought a bike off Craigslist, and it was this beautiful blue, Columbia, old shitty vintage road bike. I loved that bike so much — it gave me so much independence, and I just got obsessed with bikes and wanted to know how to fix mine myself. Then that just spiraled into an obsession with the bike itself, and the whole concept behind it. There’s so much that goes into it.
SO HOW DID YOU START BRINGING BIKES INTO YOUR ART?
I think it was something that just kind of happened. That first bike gave me so much joy in life that I wanted to start using that feeling in pieces that I did, and then slowly the bike itself became a piece. I mean, if you think about a bike, it’s really the most beautiful and perfect design, and that design has been around for so long. There will always be just the classic two triangles. It’s two triangles, two circles, some lines — that’s the perfect transportation. It’s beautiful and elegant and just as an object itself…I think it’s incredible.
HOW DID YOU SOURCE ALL THESE BIKES?
Yeah, I stole everything. I kicked kids off their bikes and ran away with them. [Laughs] Just kidding. I work in the bike industry painting bikes and started noticing that there’s a lot of waste that goes on. I shouldn’t say waste but — leftover things. So, I started kind of collecting things, and telling people that I wanted their old stuff — and it got around. I had some friends who would find pieces in dumpsters and bring them to me. I think once you start looking, you start noticing tons of bikes just around, but I’ve gotten pretty lucky.
WHAT KIND OF TECHNIQUES DID YOU USE TO MAKE THE PIECES IN “BIKES MOVE US”?
Mostly welding, some electrical stuff with motors for movement, and I did some upholstery and painting for the chair. I work a lot with older bikes, and the machining that was put into older bikes is a lot looser than the machining that goes into them now, so a lot of pieces can be more easily swapped. You can kind of put pieces where they’re not supposed to go. I almost treated the bikes like Lego pieces — it’s like collaging. And oh, the wood carving. I carved that face out of a tree.
THE WOOD CARVING IS KINDA OUT OF LEFT FIELD.
I had actually wanted to carve a bust a long time ago, and I spent an entire summer carving that piece and then I didn’t have anything to do with it. And then it was sitting in my studio for the longest time and eventually one day I was sitting there and looking around my studio, because most of the pieces are just a collage of other things. I took it and I flipped it up and then started sort of playing with it and it became — that.
BIG QUESTION INCOMING, BUT HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE MAIN THEME OF “BIKES MOVE US”?
Yeah so, I think it’s a lot about trash and our relationship to trash, but it’s also just about thinking about the world in different ways. But it’s even simpler than that, you know? I was just playing with these things that I really like, and trying to imagine what else they could become. The bike is a beautiful and perfect design, but what if we cut it in half and turn it upside down? I want people to obviously experience it in their own way, and hopefully make people see things differently. Like, when you see that rusting piece of trash on the side of the street, it could always become something else. It’s just sort of an invitation to play.
I also really wanted to explore this Japanese practice called Chindōgu. Here, I wrote down the actual definition — it’s the practice of inventing ingenious, everyday gadgets that seem to be an ideal solution to particular problems, but which can cause more problems than they solve. I’ve always really liked the absurdity of that idea. You can see in Lightbulbs are susceptible to breaking— the lamp has a helmet to protect the light bulb, so it’s protecting that especially delicate aspect of the body. And in Perfect circles, this bike doesn’t have a wheel, but we still get the circle from the drawing. How we think about things can be really fun and absurd if you sort of loosen it up a bit.
SO, HOW DO YOU THINK THE PUBLIC LOCATION OF THE EXHIBIT SORT OF FITS INTO THOSE THEMES? OR DID YOU INTEND FOR THAT?
Yeah, I mean, I didn’t pick the space, the space kind of came to me, but I couldn’t have asked for a better spot for it. Yolanda came to me, and she was like, I found this space and I want you to be the first show. The idea that you don’t have to pay for the exhibit or even take time out of your day really lends itself perfectly — you don’t have to go into a building or interact with anyone, you can just shuffle on by and do a little side eye. But it’s kind of paying homage back to where they came from, you know? All these pieces were somewhere rusting on the side of the road and in the dumpster and it’s almost an elevated version of that. It’s like taking a piece off the sidewalk and putting it behind glass.
I LOVE THAT IDEA. OKAY — LAST QUESTION. DO YOU THINK THAT BIKES WILL BE PART OF YOUR WORK FOR A LONG TIME?
Yeah, I think so. I’ll always be drawn to bikes just as sort of a baseline—they’re my Legos. Everyone collects things, and the art is kind of just a product of having this collection of parts to make other things with. It’s weird. I don’t like to say I’m a materialistic person, but I am absolutely obsessed with materials. It’s just an innate sense of, like, objectivity rather than monetary value. And with bikes — I have never been so confused and curious about a single object before.
(Nat Reed’s “Bikes Upon Us” can be seen at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Linden Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, through September 9, when there will be a closing celebration for the exhibition in Harvard Square featuring local performers and food trucks. To see more of Reed’s work, visit natbreed.com. To learn more about 25/8 artspace and its “Behind VA Shadows” project, visit behindvashadows.com/25-8-artspace.)