Appalachian State University art instructor to ride bicycle more than 3,400 miles, talk about political boundaries

From the Mountain Times:

What are boundaries?

Arbitrary lines on a map, social devices to maintain a status quo, or something different altogether? 

Area artist Joe Bigley intends to find out.

“I think we take them for granted a lot,” said Bigley, an art instructor at Appalachian State University. “I’d like to get people to think about the nature of boundaries in general.”

He’s got a plan: Traversing a Foreign Border Domestically.

Having worked with a cartographer to map a course in the continental U.S. that follows the border and counter of Afghanistan, Bigley will bicycle the entire length of the Afghan border -3,435.5 miles to be exact.

“Essentially, (the trip) is to highlight the peculiar nature of political boundaries,” he said. “Because if you think about the conflict, it’s kind of an arbitrary target, Afghanistan, because the borders are porous – the boundaries of that country were drawn up by the Russians and British in the late 1800s.”

Starting at Ground Zero in New York City on May 12, Bigley will travel approximately 75 miles a day, planning to return to Manhattan in about 70 days.

“I’m not looking forward to biking through New Jersey, but that’s the first two days,” he said. “Then through a lot of northern Pennsylvania, just into New York State … then through Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and then back up the East Coast … to go through D.C., because that one seems appropriate given to content.”

Along the way, he’ll be delivering presentations at various contemporary art venues, including The McDonough Museum of Art in Youngstown, Ohio; The Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art in Indianapolis, Ind.; The Asheville Museum of Art in Asheville; UNC Asheville; and The Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro.