Clycieun 1991

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Whiten began producing mixed-media works that reference everyday objects, quoting the vernacular in their respective forms. Many of these pieces embrace the notion of a journey, both physical and spiritual, embodying different modes of travel. The wheel, especially, is a common motif and appears in Ram, 1987, Canticle for Adrienne, 1989, Hearken to the Service of Emmanuel, 1990, and Clycieun.

Clycieun is a humorous sculptural work by Whiten. Resembling a unicycle, it comprises an attenuated wooden fork, a single wheel, and a bicycle seat. Associated with street performers, circuses, and festivals, the unicycle requires great skill, strength, and balance to navigate. The exaggerated height of Whiten’s vehicle, however, makes it perilous to mount, while the absence of pedals makes it impossible to propel. The title, Clycieun, is an anagram for the word “unicycle,” a nod to the artist’s reordering of its classic elements.

The French artist Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) was a formative influence on Whiten. The latter’s use of familiar artifacts finds comparison with Duchamp’s readymades and, specifically, in the case of Clycieun, his iconic sculpture, Bicycle Wheel, 1913–17. Duchamp’s first version of Bicycle Wheel from 1913 consists of a bicycle fork with the front wheel mounted upside down on a wooden stool; the tire is filled with air, but no peddles are apparent.

By contrast, Clycieun is upright. The saddle invites the rider to mount, yet the unicycle’s precarious height makes this proposition unfeasible. Its single wheel denotes mobility, yet its lack of pedals would thwart our control over its motions. Our feet cannot propel us; the movement this work describes is not in concert with the way that we customarily navigate this earth. As S. Brent Plate observes in Tim Whiten: Tools of Conveyance (2022), Duchamp transformed the purpose of an object by restaging it within a new context, while Whiten alters the object’s nature to engage the viewer in a transformational experience.

Clycieun’s bicycle fork is constructed from a tall, slender sapling. The tree is a constant image for Whiten, whose first name, Grover, means “one who cares for the trees.” Other works incorporating trees or branches include Hearken to the Service of Emmanuel, Elysium, 2008, and Hallelujah (II), 2015. In Clycieun, the sapling signifies the Tree of Life, as well as the axis mundi or mythic world centre—the portal between heaven and earth, and the higher and lower realms of existence. Clycieun’s extreme verticality points to our aspirations to attain a higher order of understanding or state of being. Yet, our desired ascension exceeds our physical agency; the folly of our ambition is humorously brought to light.