Key West puts on a parade of ‘human-powered’ sculptures

Virginia Wark didn’t just recycle a couple of pieces here and there for her entry in Saturday’s Key West Papio Kinetic Sculpture Parade, a collection of sculptures with moving parts powered by pedaling.

There are old rain gutters and hula hoops, to start.

“It’s all recyclables,” Wark said, giving a tour of her handmade blue and white contraption that sported an array of peace symbols. “These are wading pools my neighbors threw out. This all came from packaging from things that got shipped at work. They saved the odds and ends for me.”

She then pointed to another piece of the bicycle-powered sculpture. “This is part of a carport,” she said proudly.

The theme of this ingenious little parade in Key West could be waste not, want not.

In its fourth year, the event is named after the Key Largo metalworks artist Stanley Papio, a welder who believed in using found materials for art work.

Other kinetic sculpture events exist in Baltimore, Denver, California and Oregon, but they are races or revolve around obstacle courses.

Saturday’s Key West parade took off from the Custom House on Front Street and ran down Duval Street. Children from Sugarloaf School, Sigsbee Charter School and Horace O’Bryant School took part.

Sigsbee students made a sailfish on a bike.

Bria Wilson, 11, and Fernanda Parra, 12, were putting the finishing touches on it Saturday morning before the noontime parade start.

“It took us the whole school year,” said Wilson. “It definitely was worth all the time it took.”

This story was originally published May 4, 2019 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Key West puts on a parade of ‘human-powered’ sculptures."