Hackney’s cycling cultures: Bike Portraits pop-up exhibition

Left deliberately messy with jagged edges, exaggerated horizons and absurd architectures, each portrait has a unique shape that emerges in the making.

Bike Portraits is a ‘pop-up’ exhibition on show for a short time across bike shops and cafés across Hackney.

A total of twenty-five portraits were taken in and around Hackney during the past twelve months. Derived from David Hockney’s collages and comprised of up to 60 separate images, each portrait has a unique shape that emerges in the making.

The exhibition has been organised by Kat Jungnickel, a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of East London, as part of a sociology research project on cycling cultures in the UK.

Kat said: “These portraits represent a broad spectrum of people, of all ages and backgrounds, bicycles and urban locations that together make up ‘normal’ and ‘everyday’ cycling in the borough.

“People cycle an incredible range of bicycles, wear all kinds of clothing and experience the city in ways very different to that of drivers, pedestrians and public transport users. These portraits go some way to reflect the unique character of cycling and intimate relationship between people, their bikes and the borough.”

Hackney has seen the highest increase in cyclists of any of the London boroughs in recent years.

The private view takes place on Saturday, 30 July starting at 2.00pm with a bike ride between the five venues, and runs until the end of August.

Visitors are being encouraged to cycle from venue to venue.

The venues for Bike Portraits are:

Two Wheels Good, 165 Stoke Newington Church Street
Push Cycles, 35c Newington Green
London Fields Cycles, 281 Mare Street
Lock 7, 129 Pritchard’s Road (Broadway Market)
Look Mum No Hands, 49 Old Street

To attend the launch ride and private view, contact Kat Jungnickel: K.E.Jungnickel@uel.ac.uk.

For further information, visit Cycling Cultures here, where a short film of the event will also be available.