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'Zombie' art exhibit goes on display

BY MICAH MERTES / Lincoln Journal Star
Friday, Jun 27, 2008 - 01:14:12 am CDT
Half transportation. Half art. All Zombie.

Friday evening will be a night of the wheeling dead, as dozens of  bizarre but functional bicycles go on display in an art exhibition called “Zombie Bikes Ride Again” at Against the Wall Gallery.

A small group of Lincolnites dig up out-of-commission bikes and give them new life by fusing an assembly of spare junked parts to create something altogether different, even macabre. 

They’re like Frankenstein’s monster, but hopefully without the tragic repercussions.

These old, regular bikes are now bikes with punk-rock spikes. Bikes with deer antlers and bull horns. Bikes with mangled, heavy-metal Barbies glued to the wheel’s rusty splash-guard.

Though ridable, these bikes aren’t the most comfortable form of transportation, for reasons you could imagine.

However, said Brook Taylor, 44, one of the bike artists, “Comfort’s nice, but it’s more fun to mess with people.”

Every week, Taylor and several other bike-makers mess with people by cruising their creations around Lincoln and turning heads with their abnormal designs. 

“I’ve had people just freak out when they see these bikes,” Taylor said. “They say, ‘You’ve got it all wrong. You’ve got to raise your seat up, you’ve got to do this.’ I just say, ‘Hey, I built this for style.’”

Art takes precedence over restoration in the craft of the Zombie Bike.

“These bikes are going to be unlike anything we’ve ever had in here,” said Against the Wall Gallery manager Delan Lonowski. “Something different.”

Something undead.

Reach Micah Mertes at 473-7395 or mmertes@journalstar.com.