////Series of imaginary-glass-blown-public-art-installations, expressing my sense of joy of cycling in a state of flow with the city of New York///////
After my first trip to NYC in August of 2022, which I’ve described in the first piece from this collection https://superrare.com/0xe38e5ae570b388f902d240c901628418cc528243/glass-blown:-cycling-in-nyc:-installation-1-1 , I headed to Charlottesville, Virginia, where my wife (~9 months pregnant with our son) & 6 y/o kid were waiting for me. My fam have left Kyiv since the full scale war exploded over all cities of Ukraine, when ruzzia attacked us 8 months ago. My wife eventually decided to go to the US, to give birth to our child in a safe environment. My wife's uncle has lived in Charlottesville for many years, he’s a medical doctor. He helped to organize childbirth support for my dear wife, which I’m eternally grateful for.
While I’ve stayed in Charlottesville I’ve been still under a huge impression of my New York cycling experience. I’ve searched on youtube for any videos about cycling in NYC and the first video was Cooper Ray cycling the streets of lower Manhattan, followed by filmmaker Terry Barentsen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atkp8mklOh0 This video blew my mind! Cooper was flowing through the traffic like a dolphin on the waves: playful, quick, intelligent, in constant movement, adapting to the everchanging chaos of the city. I’ve started watching other Terry’s videos https://www.youtube.com/c/TerryBarentsenVision and got so inspired that soon I bought a custom gravel bicycle at a local Community bicycle shop. I’ve started riding around the neighborhood of Charlottesville with my older son and alone on longer distances. During that time I’ve started ai-generating these series of glass-blown cycling-inspired installations that I would love to see installed in NYC. Also with Ai I’ve imagined lots of large-scale glass installations inspired by natural lifeforms located around Manhattan and Brooklyn. After generating a series of these works I’ve decided to visit NY one more time before leaving the US back to Ukraine in the middle September. My goal was to ride around NY, taking photos of the city, to use them as backgrounds for part of my generated images of NYC glass artworks, to give my artworks a more realistic feeling. I’ve been cycling 2-3 times a day for 2 weeks, preparing for my cycling trip to NY. Finally the day I've been waiting for has come & I took my bicycle on train from Charlottesville to NY. This time felt different. I’ve had a good bicycle, equipped with navigation/bag/lockers/helmet/gloves, etc, physically prepared to ride long distances and a mission to take as many beautiful photos of NY as I can, with an understanding of what kind of photos will work well with my generated images. I’ve been riding all over Manhattan and Central Park taking photos, later I went to Brooklyn and Queens. I fell in love with NYC even more this time. Later that evening I cycled back from Brooklyn to Manhattan and encountered a group of cyclists that vibed with me immediately, so I decided to follow their ride and to join them. In a group of around 15 cyclists, we’ve been cycling over Manhattan, such a fun experience, kind of performance art right on streets of the city. I didn’t know where we were heading to, and I was enjoying the ride and not worrying about the destination. Then suddenly we arrived at some crowded exhibition in Soho. I visited the exhibition, liked it and decided to take a ride alone to Central Park. When I was riding to my destination I encountered the SuperRare gallery, full of people inside! I had no idea that the same day I was in NY was the opening of the final exhibition in this physical SR gallery in Soho. I’ve had a SuperRare t-shirt on me, the guy at the entrance said that they are full and can’t let me in because I haven’t registered for that event. I pointed to my SR logo on my t-shirt and said I'm an SR artist, and it worked, & they’ve let me in:)) Inside I’ve met with Zack Roses first, then John Crain, Charles Crain, and Jonathan Perkins - the founders of SuperRare. That was my dream come true! I wanted to meet with them 1 month before, when I visited SR gallery for the first time in August, but all SR founders were celebrating the wedding of Zack Roses and his bride in some other city. But somehow we’ve met this time by pure coincidence. I’ve viewed all artwork at the exhibition - art was fantastic, the exhibition felt wonderful overall, the gallery was full of vibrant people and the music was really good. I’ve met Mika, a beautiful human being. She introduced me to another wonderful human being: An, curator of SR, that I knew online but never met her irl. I'm really thankful to Mika and An all their support with the invitation to the SR exhibition. Later I met with Matt Medved, who collected a few of my pieces on SR and was kindly supporting me ever since, a super nice guy. After meeting all those wonderful people in a flash, I’ve encountered Max Osiris. A living legend, real artist I respect for keeping it real. Such a pleasure to meet all these wonderful people that I’ve mentioned here. Feels precious to be a part of the SR community. I’m eternally grateful for the opportunity to visit US/NYC, to be with my wife while she was giving birth to our son, to meet with the lovely SR team: An, Mika, Zack, John Crain, Charles Crain, Jon Perkins, Medved and Osiris, to ride around the city all day long in the state of flow in New York City, taking photos, enjoying the ride. Inspiring.
osiris
