Turning Together is a human-powered artwork made from two bicycles: one adult-sized and one child-sized. When a viewer turns a bicycle wheel by hand, both bicycles begin to rotate. The smaller bicycle turns twice as fast as the larger one, creating two different movements from the same source of power.
While working in Cleveland, I was struck by the way a father and son I met there spent time together. The son was always moving around with a lot of energy, and the father enjoyed that energy with him. Their open and relaxed relationship felt different from the parent-child relationships I was familiar with in Japan, and it became the inspiration for this work.
The large bicycle turns slowly, while the small bicycle spins with greater speed and energy. I titled the work Turning Together because the two bicycles continue to turn together, even though they move at different speeds.