{"id":1953,"date":"2016-04-19T20:14:41","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T20:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/arts-culture\/local-photographer-questions-state-of-bicycling-in-fast-forward-at-utopia\/"},"modified":"2016-04-19T20:14:41","modified_gmt":"2016-04-19T20:14:41","slug":"local-photographer-questions-state-of-bicycling-in-fast-forward-at-utopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/art\/local-photographer-questions-state-of-bicycling-in-fast-forward-at-utopia","title":{"rendered":"Local Photographer Questions State of Bicycling In FAST FORWARD? at Utopia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Photos courtesy of John Montich.<\/em><\/p>\n

Local photographer John Montich collects with his camera lens overlooked items, mementos shoved aside, abandoned objects left to rust and rot. In the case of his upcoming show, Fast Forward?<\/em>, which opened at Utopia in the East Village Arts District last week, his photographs of unrideable bicycles, the first few taken almost 30 years ago, show just a few of the dozens of discarded bikes he’s immortalized with his eye for the neglected.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve always been a photographer that\u2019s looked at stuff that I think other people don\u2019t look at, the stuff that\u2019s been discarded or put away in the corner or that\u2019s just been, you know, overlooked,\u201d said Montich. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s what the bicycle stuff is.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Montich\u2019s message isn\u2019t blatantly clear, but it\u2019s there for those viewers who want to pit his seven-piece exhibit of dilapidated two-wheelers against the bright-eyed enthusiasm for Long Beach\u2019s bicycle friendliness. Lining Broadway, conveniently one block away from Utopia, the protected bike lanes that show off the city\u2019s intent to become more bicycle-friendly and officially opened for use in 2011, are an example of an idea still in question by many of its users; not that it wasn\u2019t a valiant effort to encourage more cyclists to take to the streets.<\/p>\n

The occasionally occupied cycle tracks, as they\u2019re called in this article<\/a>, have to be wondering at this point, why they were ever implemented in the first place. If the cycling symbols painted on the lanes were replaced with the image of a UPS, FedEx or other delivery truck unloading its contents, users would have a more realistic idea of what those pretty green stripes are actually there for.<\/p>\n

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RELATED<\/small> <\/p>\n

UPDATED WITH NEW PHOTO: NYC Cyclist Calls Protected Bike Lanes ‘Death Traps;’ Reaction to Long Beach Bike-only Lanes Mixed<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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But that\u2019s just the opinion of a writer who rides those protected lanes on both 3rd Street and Broadway to travel to and from work five days a week, every morning and evening, who, nine times out of 10, remains the only commuter occupying the \u201csafe\u201d space for pedalers. Who, at least two to three times a week is forced to either illegally ride the sidewalk or hop into a lane occupied by oncoming, unsuspecting motorists to avoid smashing into the rear of an Arrowhead Spring Water truck and its hazard of a delivery man rolling a dolly. And that\u2019s just one of the issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically what I say and what\u2019s printable is we\u2019re a city that wants this to be the most bike-friendly city in the world or California or whatever, and all I\u2019m saying is, this is kind of a disparate look at the other side of bicycles,\u201d Montich added.<\/p>\n

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And while \u201cthis writer\u201d admits to using Montich\u2019s upcoming show as a self-serving catalyst for spewing a long-contained rant about downtown Long Beach\u2019s protected bike lanes and the people who seem to actually use them nowadays, Montich doesn\u2019t need to include an explanation with his work, because the message is for the viewers to mull over on their own, much like how this article turned out.<\/p>\n

\u201cA long time ago when I first started photography and I went to a well-respected curator and art consultant and people were asking me for statements about my work; we had it all laid out on her living room floor and she says, \u2018You don\u2019t need a statement, your work speaks for itself,\u2019\u201d Montich said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what I feel about this project. It is what it is, there\u2019s nothing deep, emotional… There\u2019s a message there, but it\u2019s a message to myself and anybody that wants to actually think a little bit. It\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast Forward?<\/em> will be on view through Saturday, June 11. An Artist\u2019s Reception will take place at Utopia on Saturday, April 23 from 4:00PM to 6:00PM.<\/p>\n

Utopia, known for not only good food, but its rotating fine art displays featuring local artists, is located at 445 East First Street.<\/p>\n

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Local photographer John Montich collects with his camera lens overlooked items, mementos shoved aside, abandoned objects left to rust and rot. In the case of his upcoming show,\u00a0Fast Forward?<\/em>\u00a0his photographs of unrideable bicycles show just a few of the dozens of discarded bikes he’s immortalized with his eye for the neglected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":67324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[186],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-photography","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1953"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1953"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}