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Olga Lozovska

Professor H. Batty

English 101

28 May 2017

Riding Zombies around the City: Analyzing the Mural and its Social Meaning
There are two types of motorcyclists: those that have crashed, and those that are going to

crash. This phrase has been said a lot, and I recalled it when I saw mural by DFace Going

everywhere fast. The mural reflects a movement and speed, the couple driving rapidly n

motorcycle. It's painted in the artist's signature comic pop art style, and this blend of pop art is

spliced with flagility of life. In regards to the safety, the fatality rate is a lot higher when riding a

motorcycle than driving a car. One of the reasons of accident is lane splitting. Although some

people believe that this mural speaks about dead celebrities, however, I think that it demonstrates

a social problem in Los Angeles which is the motorcycle mortality due to the increasing

possibility of accidents, such as lane splitting. The mural informs about the danger of driving fast

and the possibility of death.

When I look at the mural, I can feel the motion and the fugacious nature of life and time.

The painting is made in a comic style, but in a softer interpretation, than inky, pixel-dotted

graphics, and the exploration of the concept have reached new depths. I feel like the artist used

the comic style to make something dangerous and violent more appealing and easier to notice for

mass audiences. The stunning pale blonde girl with savory red lips, rides on the motorcycle

behind a zombie guy and holds him passionately. She looks very sad, even shed a tear, like this is

their last minutes together. She has a small cloudlike angel wings on her head, maybe she wants

to save him from the inevitability, but seems like he is ready for anything that can happen to him.

His skeleton face with styled purple hair, has strong facial expression, he is not scared of death,
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but he may be sad that his beautiful companion will have to let him go. This is how I feel the

motorcyclists on the road recklessly behave because they are not afraid of death. The artist used a

human skull as a symbol of death. It is very common symbolic to represent a mortality. The

blonde girl symbolizes an angel, the intermediator between earth and heaven, she is a guardian of

the death, and will accompany zombie boys soul. The pop art mural satirizes the death but also

encourages to look around, to see the environment around us, to be conscious about our

decisions and surroundings.

After analyzing the mural I paid attention to the background. The colorful lines behind

the couple symbolize the movement, they ride so fast that background is blurry, fuzzy and

undefined. The artist used red, yellow, and grey colors in the painting. Red is the most noticeable

and emotionally intense color. Its associated with fire and blood, it can be related to energy, love

and passion. In this mural red color was used to represent danger, action and courage. It can

reflect red lights and stop signs that became blurry on the background. Yellow is usually

associated with joy and happiness but in combination with black it expresses warning. Grey

color is often linked to loss and depression. The zombie boy is wearing black jacket, it is in the

middle of mural, very noticeable, this mysterious color has meanings of death and fear. I think

DFace tried to emphasize the danger, motion, speed and fugacious of the life using this colors.
A motorcycle is an important form of personal transportation in The U.S., its fast,

functional, and convenient, but at the same time it can be very dangerous. Although, there is an

opinion that riding motorcycle is safer, because riders see more, evade better, and are more

attentive, if you compare motorcycle to a car, there is a lot of available data that suggests that

riding a motorcycle is more dangerous. Based on 2014 fatal crash data, motorcyclist deaths

occurred 27 times more frequently than fatalities in other vehicles, and the number is terrifying:

4586 motorcyclists lost their lives in traffic accidents. Also, from 2004 to 2013, motorcyclist
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fatalities increased by 16 percent. The statistics illustrate how dangerous motorbikes can be.

These statistics relate to the mural because I feel like the meaning behind the skeleton face of the

motorcyclist is representing his death and the death of many people that ride motorcycles.
Lane splitting is one of the most common causes of crashes besides speeding, and riding

under the influence. The term refers to the process of a motorcyclist riding between lanes of

stopped or slower moving traffic or moving between lanes to the front of traffic stopped at a

traffic light. Actually, traveling through the lines is not necessarily a hazard. It becomes

hazardous when people start going faster than the speed limit or they start doing it in reckless

manner. said Nate Ashby, California Highway Patrol Officer, about the lane splitting. If you

look further, according to the article "California Becomes First State to Formalize the Practice of

Lane Splitting, 997 of the 6969 motorcycle accidents included lane splitting. Despite this, on

August 19, 2016 California became the first state that officially legalized lane splitting, and it has

been allowed for decades. Before the bill was signed, lane splitting was neither allowed nor

prohibited. Although lane sharing is legal now, its not recommended and becomes dangerous in

some circumstances: there is no adequate space, traffic moving too fast or is unpredictable,

dangerous road or weather conditions, large vehicles are involved, rider is not aware of his

surrounding or unable quickly react to changing conditions. Only experienced drivers with high

level of riding competency are recommended to perform lane filtering. There are guidelines for

line splitting, and they are not guaranteed to keep bikers safe, and cant cover all possible

situations on the road. Every motorcycle rider is responsible for his own decisions on the road,

he needs to be conscious about reducing crash risks and safety of himself and car drivers that

surround him. Despite some motorcyclists feel more safe with the lane splitting, its very

hazardous, specially in some circumstances or at the higher speed, and it should be prohibited.
According to many viewers of DFaces work he likes to portray blondes, motors, and
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dead celebrities. As you can see in the mural he includes two of his signatures, the blonde and a

motorbike, but does not clearly describe a dead celebrity. Some people believe that this mural is

about dead celebrities because he has done previous ones of Bob Marley and Curt Cobain, but I

believe that it is about the dangers of riding motorcyclists. The artist is trying to use his platform

to warn the audience of these dangers and to take all of the necessary precautions when riding a

motorbike around the city.

We discovered the meaning of the mural Going everywhere fast, how artist used colors,

symbols, facial expressions to represent mortality and danger around us because life is to short to

take unnecessary risks Motorcycle riders need to realize that they have to pay more attention

on the road, avoid risks, obey traffic lights, stop signs, speed limits, ride with the flow of traffic,

avoid lane splitting, and leave plenty of room between bike and other vehicles. They need to

proceed consciously and with increased visibility and responsibility. Continuing to disobey and

disregard these rules of the road will certainly end with one outcome for the rider, death.
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Works Cited
"Frobenius Splitting: General Theory." Lane Splitting General Guidelines (n.d.) California

Motorcyclist Safety Program. California Highway Patrol. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.

Amy.lee.ctr. "Motorcycles." NHTSA. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 18 Jan.

2017. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.

Haire, Chris, and Alma Fausto. "Motorcycle Lane-splitting Gets Green Light in California, but

Rules Still Unclear." The Orange County Register. N.p., 22 Aug. 2016. Web. 01 Mar.

2017.
"California Becomes First State to Formalize the Practice of Lane Splitting." Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles Times, 01 Sept. 2016. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.

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Appendix