Bike 2000 is a digital video piece by Sokari Douglas Camp which combines a kinetic sculpture with music by Kenziah Jones and filming by Jane Thorburn.
The collaboration between Camp and Jones in particular sought to bring the cities of Lagos and London together. Jones’ guitar-based afrobeat is a very ‘Lagos’ sound, while Bike 2000 is a sculpture, made from painted steel and electric motors, inspired by Okada, the bikes used to transport people short distances in Nigeria.
The sculpture was displayed in the window of a London gallery, where it added a new dimension to the street traffic. “I wanted [...] to enable automobile traffic, and London’s bike couriers to see a parallel reality as they passed through South London.” Camp’s use of motors and metal evokes the hands-on mechanical repairs and noisy electricity generators frequently found in many parts of Nigeria; this noisy, vibrant, very present power is in contrast to the quiet and concealed hum of machines which power London.