Normally sketching a picture of a naked baby and sharing it on social media is a real social (and legal) faux-pas. But, there is an exception to that rule: recreating the iconic image of the naked baby on Nirvana’s Nevermind album cover in the form of Strava art.
45-year-old Australian cyclist and GPS artist, Pete Stokes, has done just that by riding 150km around Adelaide on his bike to recreate the photo to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album’s release on 24 September.
It’s a truly exhausting way to create a piece of art, but the album itself has a special meaning to Stokes. “When this album came out I was in high school – I was about 14, and that’s when you’re forming your love of music,” Stokes told The Guardian.
Strava is a GPS-based site that is used by people around the world to track their runs and bike-rides, mostly so that they can brag to their friends about how much exercise they do. But, it’s also used by some to create pretty amazing images ranging from detailed and sophisticated recreating of the Mona Lisa and the classic dick-and-balls – a particular favourite for first-time Strava users.
Controversially, Stokes’ image does include the baby’s penis, which is currently the subject of litigation. Nirvana is currently being sued by Spencer Elden for child exploitation because he was only four months old when the original photo was taken. Perhaps this explains why the baby that Stokes has drawn on his bike looks a lot angrier than the original image. Either that or the paths around the Adelaide Oval just happen to be diagonal.
As you probably guessed by the level of detail in this picture, this is not Stokes’ first time using Strava. He previously sketched out Beethoven to mark the composer’s 250th birthday, and has also created images of dinosaurs, dragons and foxes.
Of course, the Nevermind baby could be his magnum opus and, given how the litigation goes, it could even be used as evidence to show that Spencer Elden was angry about the photo even as it was being taken.
