Walking over the canal towards King’s Place this week we noticed an eye-catching scaly sculpture perched on the towpath, as if guarding the boats on the water.
The creation of artist Steven Gregory, Fish on a Bicycle (1998) is an artwork that can’t fail to raise a smile. Heck, even the creature itself has a goofy expression that is, somehow, irrepressibly human. It brightened up a grey midweek morning, anyway.
Gregory was born in Johannesburg in 1952, later moving to London to study at St Martin’s College of Art (1970-72). He even did time as an apprentice stonemason, working on Westminster Abbey and Hampton Court.
But where, in fact, does the phrase ‘fish on a bicycle’ come from? It appears to date back to 1955, when Charles S. Harris wrote in the student newspaper Swarthmore Phoenix that ‘a man without faith is like a fish without a bicycle.’ A more famous feminist reboot of the phrase – ‘a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle’ – was later coined in 1970 by the Australian filmmaker, social activist, and writer Irina Dunn.
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Gregory’s work, with its juxtaposing elements, perhaps captures these various allusions, but makes no further comment – other than that mischievous glint in his eye.
Fish On a Bicycle is part of the Pangolin Gallery Sculpture Trail at King’s Place, and is in situ until the end of 2023. Follow @pangolin.london
