Kurb-side Spoons; modified bicycle, 2016 - ongoing
Kurb-Side Spoons is a mobile wooden spoon maker and vendor. The material is salvaged from discarded furniture found in the urban environment. By utilizing small pieces of hard wood from castaway furniture, otherwise forsaken, I directly interact with our culture of excess. The spoons I make at the bicycle are for sale or barter, framing interactions under a relationship defined by commerce.
As crafted objects, spoon design is necessarily driven by function first; the best results are elegantly simple. Spoons do not have a front or back and every side must be shaped and appropriately resolved and defined. Wooden spoons can be crafted with the simplest of techniques and materials. Carving them by hand is an engaged, immediate exercise. It is a meditative experience for me and gratifying for observers to watch. These simple wooden utensils are woven into the path of our evolution. Thinking about the history of tool making and use brings to mind images of primates using sticks to eat from insect mounds. A spoon is the first tool our hands are taught to use and possess a beautiful innate democracy.
Like any workshop or contraption, the bicycle, its apparatus, and the tools are in a constant state of change as they are upgraded, modified, and used.