Strava artist creates incredible work to mark anniversary of fall of Berlin Wall

A Strava artist has created an incredible piece to mark the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Gary Cordery was contacted by Strava because of his previous efforts creating artworks on the social media for athletes, which resulted in the latest creation.

The work was commissioned by Strava to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

Cordery’s work took a total elapsed time of 48 hours, 54 minutes and 32 seconds to create, with six hours of that moving time. The piece covers 100km of the city of Berlin.

The Strava artwork is a recreation of the infamous graffiti piece ‘My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love', also known as ‘Bruderkuss,’ by Russian painter Dmitri Vrubel, which was based on a photograph of an embrace between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German leader Erich Honecker.

Vrubel painted his graffiti mural in 1990 on the East Side Gallery section of the Berlin Wall.

Cordery’s method for creating the Strava art was to ride the streets of Berlin to create a rough outline of the image he wished to create. This took three days, covered 224.69km and involved almost 15 hours of moving time.

That background working was then edited down to create the final piece.

Cordery, a graphic designer and map-maker, also shares artworks from other artists utilising their GPS to create masterpieces via his Instagram account. You can view other Strava artworks on his website here. 

>>> Five of the best: Strava art 

Earlier this year, New Zealand cyclist Carl Wells spent three months planning out his bizarre ‘laser kiwi’ Strava art.

His creation a reference to a recent campaign to find New Zealand a new national flag.

Late last year, we also saw some festive fun being spread via Strava, as Anthony Hoyte drew Santa Claus around the city of Birmingham.

The 4.5 hour ride around Birmingham labelled ‘Ho ho ho’ that mapped out Saint Nick, had a number of challenges to ensure the detailed drawing was accurate as well as the challenge of negotiating Christmas shoppers on a busy Saturday.