Conceptual Installation and Performance Artist Hannah Curtis, who works under the name Volatile Blossom, is a Band of Bicycles favorite.  She peers fearlessly into the darker facets of life and accepts them with dangerous celebration. I instant messaged with VB while sitting next to her at Cafe Orwell to discuss Bike B& type things, biking and art.  All typos have been kept intact to give you an authentic experience of our IM session.

me:  that’s hot

Hannah:  all night long

i don’t stop

i ride all the time

anytime.

summer

winter

24/7

7 days a week

and with your mom

me:  rawrrr

i think there’s a name for that

Hannah:  bike messenger?

me:  heh.

I was thinking of something else, but sure, bike messenger? Is that your job?

Hannah:  No I have another part time bullshit job

that i ride my bike to

me:  nice! Why do you choose to ride to worK?  Is it far from public transit?

Hannah:  No not at all, I live a few minutes from two different train lines that (eventually) access my work, I ride because I love it! I love the freedom, that it’s sustainable, low cost and fun. It’s still faster, smarter and sexier than your average subway journey, even when I arrive at my destination with debris in my hair and garbage in my eyes.

me:  yugh.  Garbage in your eyes?  What’s the grossed thing that has been caught on you while riding?

Hannah:  Well, that’s a personal question but i’ll answer it :

Hannah:

Actually maybe that story is for another time.

but it involves matching double denim tracksuits and your mom

me:  you really have a thing for my mom

Hannah:  well I met her and she is just lovely!

me:  lie

me:  but i am intriged to know the truth about this garbage tale, maybe we can update the post when you are ready to come clean.

me: ba dum ching

Hannah:  Really it’s just debris from the road

me:  sure

me:  hannah your work often deals with ideas of decay and urban dwelling.  You you think there is a direct relationship between your biking habits and what comes though in your work?

Hannah:  I think it surely allows for me to explore and interact with such spaces. With biking you are interacting with the environments in which you encounter rather that subway or car where you are not in direct contact. I love to see the beauty of the ‘urban sprall’ opening out before me and my bike tours always lead me to find new places of interested such as abandoned spaces.

me:  Your most resent project was in an abandoned space right?

Hannah:  Yes, I was apart of Overtake, an art series that explores and takes over abandoned spaces for the purpose of art making. This edition was at pleasure beach, a ghost town in stratford ct where we lived and worked in the broken down homes that sprinkled the beach. We were emersed in the remains of peoples lives and the experience was very inspiring. We knew from the beginning that the decayed homes were scheduled for demolishtion hence all our work would be too. I worked outside of my normal parameters of self censorship being tied to every step of creation – knowing that no material existence of your work will exist after x date pushed me to work without certain fears attatched to the end product.

me:  I sounds freeing to work that way?  Do you think the experience will change your process in future projects?

Hannah:  Yes. Every experience does.

me:  A trend I’ve noticed in your pieces is a love for the grotesque, and in things that are temporary.  What do you think drives this fascination?

Hannah:  Temporary is my namesake. ‘Volatile blossom’ tries to capture that explosive moment in which a delicate bud can no longer contain it’s powerful bloom. When I shut my eyes all I see is time lapses of flowers opening and closing with ephemeral light into dark decay. Grotesque, Yes, I love to question the ‘natural’ and the ‘expected’ to produce flamboyant archetypes of treacherous beauty and maniacal twists on femininity, social and cultural normality, medicalization, spirituality and religion as well as mainstream conceptions of the ‘body’ and the ‘self’ and the institutions that maintain them. For your viewing pleasure.

me:  Amazing.

me:  You’ve had a busy couple of months with becoming an Artistic Evolution sponsored artist and being involved in some really interesting projects with the OverTake and Apothecary Ladies.  What can we expect to see next from Volatile Blossom?

Hannah:  The next few months for Volatile Blossom will be the artistic equivalent of an atomic bomb bloom.

me:  Whoa!  That massive!
Hannah:  Yeah, that’s 50 megatons of bike powered creativity coming at you, Brooklyn.

me:  Word.  Can’t wait to see!

me:  Describe your bike in 2 words.

Hannah:  Well I ride two bikes.
The first is a cruiser. Slow and reassuring.
second is my racer. fast and dangerous.

me:  What’s your riding style?

Hannah:  I ride like it’s a roller derby game and the cars are other players and I’m the jammer and I have to go as fast as I can and hope no one knocks me over.
me:  Do you like to ride alone or in groups?

Hannah:  I like both!

me:  What is the best method to pushish cat callers?

Hannah:  Cat callers? Oh god. I don’t know anymore. Mace? Longer skirts?

I don’t know what do you think?

me:  I have many thoughts on the subject, I think you just gave me an idea for a new post.

Hannah: Heh heh heh

me:  Thanks for taking the time to talk with me!

Hannah:  no. thank you.

me:  no. thank YOU!

Hannah:  NO THANK YOU.

3-6pm Fix yer Bike Happy Hour at the 3rd Ward Bike Salon

6-7pm Mass ride from 3rd Ward to Tompkins Square Park

7-??? Time’s Up! Garden Ride to Save the Community Gardens

“This Thursday, July 29th, garden supporters – dressed as Paul Revere-  will join a Garden Bike Ride organized by Time’s Up!, a direct action environmental group, to sounds the alarms and call attention to the new rules being drafted by the City that allows gardens to be legally transferred to development, risking hundreds of gardens being bulldozed. These rules replace the 2002 Preservation Agreement, expiring 9/17/2010,  that have allowed gardens throughout the city to thrive over the last decade.  Cyclists will ride “horse cycles”-bicycles with cardboard horse heads attached to the front – to several Lower East Side Gardens, before heading up to Mayor Bloomberg’s house where they will bring flowers, cucumbers and greens from endangered community gardens.”

Vness: Good morning

B. Willis: Morning

Troll: Meh

B. Willis: Thank you for having me.

Vness:  The pleasure is mine.  The first thing I’d like to clear up for the general public is the origin of your name Baby.  Baby is not your birth name correct?

B. Willis:  Correct.  It’s a name that has evolved.  I don’t know where the seed came from, but now, today, it is a widespread name that is used by people that I come in contact with, and it’s used when people are referring to me when talking to one another.

Vness: Yes yes I see.  It’s also been said that you are in some peoples’ phones as Dr Baby Willis.  Thoughts?

B.Willis: Dr. Baby Willis, yes.  I did not get my PHD per se, however some individuals refer to me as a Doctor because of my exceptional skills, ahem,  at identifying the ailments of bicycles and then therefore, if you will, fixing or healing the ailments of the rider’s vehicle, which is their bike, if you will.

Vness: Ah yes I see. Can you you please, Doctor, describe to us your earliest memory of being on a bicycle, or being with a bicycle, or seeing a bicycle. Bicycle.

B. Willis: My earliest memory was me riding on the baby seat that was attached to what was my parents bike.  I remember being terrified as I was strapped into that baby seat while riding down some bike path in New York City.

Vness:  Do you feel like you need to overcome that fear and that’s why today you are leading a life of bicycles?

B.Willis:  That’s exactly where the inspiration for leading a life of bicycles came from.

Vness: Is that what you think about every day when you go fix bikes.

B.Willis: Definitely up there. every day. yeah.

awkward pause

Vness: What is your 5 year bike fantasy?

B.Willis:  That’s a really good question.  I would like to spray as many bikes gold as possible and ride as many mini tall bikes as humanly possible and build lots of wheels and have a bike gang and take over the streets.

Vness: If you had all the freak bike knowledge that the universe holds what would you make?

B.Willis:  I would create a bike that lots of people could ride on together.

Vness: ooo ooo. How many?!

B.Willis:  I don’t even know, 15 to 20 people perhaps?  Maybe up to 30 people.

Vness: Ha!  Now that’s a critical mass.

B. Willis: (forced laughter)

Right…. right….

I’d like to make a bike that many could ride together and perhaps together create enormous speed like a bicycle bus, if you will.

Vness: Hellstothemuthafingyes

B.Willis: We could start out with a 4 person tandem like bike with an overhead to protect us from rain or sunshine.

Vness:  Why don’t we have a bicycle car.

B.Willis:  Yeah that’s what I want.

Vness and B.Willis in unison: I want a bicycle car!

Troll: jinx

B.Willis: Yo I we’re gonna take that sh*t to the streets and be like yo guess what this ain’t no car! I don’t have to have insurance muthafucka!

Vness: I think you would.

B.Willis: No.

Vness: oh.

B.Willis:  Not in my world.

( V was just told, son)

Vness: Well thank you so much. Troll do you have anything to add or any questions you would look to ask the Doctor?

Troll: grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr   rrrrrrrah rrrrahrrrr

Vness:  Thanks for joining us at Member Minutes.

B.Willis:  Thank you so much for having me.  This was my pleasure.

See.

Mustache on yer Bike.

Last week Whale Land needed a tire replacement and because she has such a unique design she wasn’t put back together correctly by my neighborhood bike shop.  After retrieving Whale Land I found that my awesome kickstand no longer functioned:(    Luckily I have access (like everyone else) to the Bike Salon at 3rd Ward where all my bike dreams have come true.  Awesome bike mechanic, Steven, and I took a a look at Whale Land’s special set up.  We took her apart and put her back together.  She’s now working better than the day I bought her.

Some questions arose while examining my precious lovely bike.

1. What is this type of brake called?

We checked out all that’s googleable to no avail.

2. What is Whale land?

These stickers came with the bike but WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Please write in with answers or ridiculous theories.

yours truly in bike adoration,

Vness

We had so much fun last year blending smoothies for Rooftop Films and watching No Impact Man.  This Friday we’ll be heading over to watch Biker Fox, a movie about the radical biking phenomenon pictured to your right.  Check below for details on all Rooftop Films showing this weekend.

Friday, June 11^th

BIKER FOX

NY Premiere! A documentary about Tulsa’s best-known bicycle-riding, raccoon-feeding, scrapyard-dealing, screaming, motivational philosopher of life. Calling Frank P DeLarzelere III (AKA Biker Fox) a local celebrity is misleading – he is more agitator than prized local son. As a proponent of bicycles as a primary means of transportation, he is fighting an uphill battle against a Southern community that loves its cars, worships horsepower, and doesn’t smile upon long haired, flamboyantly dressed eccentrics calling for lifestyle changes.

It would be tempting for most filmmakers to make Biker Fox into a hagiographical portrait of a maverick fighting the good fight for healthy living against the close-minded authorities in a conservative small city, but Lamberton is equally interested in uncovering the darker sides of Biker Fox’s personality, making him much more human – and much more interesting.

http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/12-biker-fox

Where:

Open Road Rooftop above New Design High School

350 Grand St. @ Essex (Lower East Side)

When:

8:00 Doors Open

8:30 Live Music by Natureboy

9:00 Film Begins

11:30 After Party with Free Open Bar at Fontana’s (105 Eldridge St.)