Spinning wheels went clack-clack-clack against plastic spokesters, but the red and turquoise bicycles weren’t going anywhere. The stationary bikes set up in a plaza off Tremont Street are part of an art installation that launched Thursday, titled “InMotion: Memories of Invented Play” by Amy Archambault, who is in residence at the Boston Center for the Arts this summer.
Adorned with tennis balls and laced with climbing rope, the interactive structure is divided to emphasize three different cultures: The leisure biker, the competitive cyclist, and the BMX daredevil. A local shop, Landry’s Bicycles, donated the used bicycles.
Archambault, 29, of North Chelmsford, said she hopes her project — on display through Oct. 18 — conveys the spontaneity and creativity of child’s play. After testing the installation’s “pedal stations,” Marc Cooper, 70, found one with the perfect tension. “This one’s just right,” he said, channeling Goldilocks.
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“From [her] former professor’s standpoint, it’s thrilling,” said Cristi Rinklin, 47, a visual arts professor at the College of the Holy Cross, where Archambault studied and is now a studio supervisor and lecturer.
Archambault’s piece joins a number of other public art projects across the city, including a sculpture by Janet Echelman floating above the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.
On Saturday, the Greenway will host an interactive arts festival, FIGMENT Boston, set to feature a glow-in-the-dark, bubble-wrap dance floor and a giant typewriter, called “The Blunderwood Portable.”
Stephanie McFeeters can be reached at stephanie.mcfeeters@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @mcfeeters.