The spray-painted bike whose photo I took for my last post was featured on page 4 of the Toronto Metro.
You can click on the photo to be linked to a full page photo. For those of you that don’t know, “Metro is the world’s largest global newspaper, publishing in 21 countries and 100 major cities across Europe, North & South America and Asia.” You can read today’s entire newspaper here. The article is from the Toronto Star News Service and the original article can be found here.
What do you think? I remember the visual shock I first felt seeing the neon orange bike, especially on a rainy day. It spruced up the grey streets and really, I would imagine that most people feel happy looking at it. There’s nothing like a pop of colour in a concrete jungle! It’s something unexpected in the face of routine. That’s why I appreciate urban art so much.
I think it’s simply ridiculous to issue a removal notice on something that first of all, doesn’t get in the way of anything as far as I’ve researched and secondly, makes Toronto’s downtown more beautiful than it is already! As the artist, Caroline Macfarlane, stated on her blog:
“It turns out it is illegal to store bicycles on public property, and that we have seven days to remove it before we are fined and it is taken away to be destroyed. The funny thing is that this bike has been sitting in the same place for years, unnoticed by the city. However, once it is brightened and made beautiful, it’s got to go.”
The OCAD student also said:
“ I am determined to save the neon bike that makes so many people happy. Please help my by emailing blogthegood@gmail.com with your reason(s) why the neon bike is A GOOD THING, and why it should remain! We’ve got 6 days!!!!“
This is what the notice looks like:
I’ve read another article, also in the Metro (hey, a girl’s gotta do something on the subway!), regarding a spray-painted mural that was painted over by the city even after the artist were granted rights to paint! If this is true, fingers are being pointed towards our new mayor Rob Ford who is holding a campaign to eradicate graffiti. The line between visually appeasing, creative expression and gang-related, random and self- promoting scribbles needs to be drawn before infringing our freedom of expression.
