Made up of Kierie Pic­cininni, Tom Sodano, and Kat­lyn Her­sh­man. BQM stands for Brooklyn-Queens-Manhattan and sim­ply names the three bor­oughs in which the artists reside. Bicy­cles, maps, and urban stud­ies are an inher­ent qual­ity in the team mem­bers’ work and interests.

Why were you inter­ested in par­tic­i­pat­ing in The Putting Lot? Does it relate to work you’ve done in the past?

A friend of Kierie’s men­tioned the project and it sounded too unique to pass up. She designed I [Bike, Putt] NY with New York City infra­struc­ture and the bicy­cle in mind. After the con­cept was accepted by The Putting Lot, Tom and Kat­lyn came on board. Both stud­ied sculp­ture at Pratt Insti­tute, and I [Bike, Putt] NY res­onated with Tom’s pas­sion for map­ping and Katlyn’s enthu­si­asm for bikes. Kierie is a vol­un­teer mechanic at the direct action envi­ron­men­tal orga­ni­za­tion, Times Up!, and cre­ated a bike video series called Cit­i­zen By Bike in 2007 and 2008. In her own sculp­ture, Kat­lyn jux­ta­poses dis­placed objects around mas­sive and tran­scen­dent spaces to con­vey a greater real­ity not in reach. Tom is a sculp­tor fas­ci­nated with maps and is cur­rently explor­ing his own loca­tion in space.

What is the inspi­ra­tion for your design? How does it relate to urban sustainability?

The bicy­cle is an essen­tial rep­re­sen­ta­tion of this trans­for­ma­tive metrop­o­lis, directly influ­enc­ing a new lay­out to New York’s streets. More and more New York­ers are out rid­ing bikes for errands, to meet up with friends, to save money, for exer­cise, for less pol­lu­tion, less traf­fic, and for a greener planet. The Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion esti­mates a 35% increase in com­muter cycling, and the DOT’s efforts to add over 70 bike lanes and paths to New York City in 2008 has expanded the cur­rent net­work to 620 miles. The Putting Lot is reit­er­a­tion of space recla­ma­tion, and BQM engi­neered I [Bike, Putt] NY to include recy­cled mate­ri­als from Build It Green, 99 South 6th Street in Williams­burg, and A & S Used Auto Parts in Flushing’s The Iron Triangle.

What else would you like to see in an empty space in the city?

A horse­shoe pit, bocce court, and an open-air free bike repair in the sum­mer months.

Do you have any child­hood mem­o­ries or good sto­ries about minia­ture golf?

A few years ago Kierie was dri­ving across the Great Basin Desert, and some­where in Nevada—not too far from, and not too close to Austin—a flag pole pricked the sky about one hun­dred feet off US High­way 50. It seemed a curi­ous and very aban­doned place, and a quick stop revealed the rem­nants of what was quite pos­si­bly, at some point, a nine-hole minia­ture golf course. Left in place were four and a half holes to putt, a small shack still pro­vid­ing a spot of shade, and a pile of dis­carded obsta­cles. A five-foot tall Statue of Lib­erty hung at an angle, cov­ered in dust and tum­ble­weed cling­ing to her feet. A banana painted canary yel­low, as long as a Great Dane from tip to tail, had a hole cut in each end through which only a golf ball could have trav­eled. The most intrigu­ing of it all was one of the remain­ing Holes made in the like­ness of an aban­doned Ghost Town: replete with saloon, bank, jail­house, grave­yard, and a series of one-room cab­ins, it was a reflec­tion of the mini-golf course’s own exis­tence, for­saken and forgotten.

What do you hope to see at The Putting Lot this summer?

How does it relate to urban sus­tain­abil­ity? Mini-golf isn’t mini-golf with­out chil­dren and Fun Dip. Bike racks would be a plus!