L I S A D A W N G O L D
E A R L Y S C U L P T U R A L W O R K S
DRAWING MACHINE XXXII
“Exhausted Eyes”
1971 Harley-Davidson Sportster with exhaust tubes
Drawing: emissions exhaust on 100% rag paper
(Above photo taken outside The Drawing Center, NYC)
5” x 5” x 8”
LISA DAWN GOLD © 1993
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“They own it by day, we own it by night”.
Having a motorcycle in New York City was part of getting my ya ya’s out so to speak. Basic maintenance helped develop my mechanical skills. Before going off to NYC, I‘d grown up in a posh suburb of Philadelphia with a very protective mother. The notion of owning, let alone riding a motorcycle was not an option in my lifetime before. With my mother not alive at the age of 16, one day I was standing on the corner of St. Marks Place and 2nd Ave when a cool motorcycle passed by. It was at that moment in 1983 that I realized I was an adult living on my own. I could then do what ever I wanted.
Back in 1983, Yuppies had not yet entered the domain and mode of transport of the Hells Angels (The Harley Davidson). I’d never really ridden a motorcycle much other than mopeds as a kid. Shopping around for my new venture, I went out to Brooklyn Harley Davidson and rode this bike back into Manhattan. I admit that the entire time riding back, I thought I was going to die; the BQE was not exactly a quiet county road.
Living in downtown Manhattan I used to ride sometimes with the English Boys from the East Village. (Dimie, Nick and his girlfriend Angela, Carmine, John, Tracy...) Dimie (Dimitri) who died too young of an overdose was supposed to have been related to Dostoevsky.
One night I rode around Manhattan with John from that crowd. We did the loop or the Manhattan Race track, which was down Houston St. to the FDR, up around the top of Manhattan and down the West Side Highway to Battery Park before coming back up the FDR to the Houston St. exit and the back to the East Village. John said something that I swear he must have gotten out of a movie. Back then Wall Street was deserted at night, just the rats were out and about. We stopped for a few minutes at the bottom of Manhattan near Wall St and John said, “They own it by day and we own it by night”. Those days were great fun.