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32 33 ARTLINES 4 | 2020 FULL FACE FULL FACE ARTISTS’ HELMETS Fifteen Australian artists have each personalised a helmet for a special exhibition complementing ‘The Motorcycle: Design, Art, Desire’. As responses to the motorcycle and motorcycling culture, the resulting artworks are both inventive and thought-provoking, writes Samantha Littley . ‘Full Face: Artists’ Helmets’ was conceived in response to ‘The Motorcycle: Design, Art, Desire’ and the work of other artists who have been inspired by the helmet’s sculptural form. 1 Accepting the invitation to individualise a Biltwell Gringo ECE ‘full face’ helmet, participants have engaged with the interwoven themes of art and design that ‘The Motorcycle’ explores, or with related social, political or environmental concerns. Shaun Gladwell and Reko Rennie each have a longstanding fascination with motorcycles, through both personal interest and an appreciation of the vehicle’s role in popular culture. Rennie’s video work Warriors come out to play 2014 was made in Yogyakarta with a group of Indonesian motorcyclists, including Collection artist Uji Handoko Eko Saputro (aka Hahan), and inspired by the 1979 films The Warriors and Mad Max . Gladwell’s work Approach to Mundi Mundi 2007 — which was filmed on the outskirts of the town featured in Mad Max and includes an hypnotic sequence of the artist riding a motorbike with no hands — appears in ‘The Motorcycle’. Gladwell’s contribution to ‘Full Face’ is an inverted helmet filled with plastic flowers resembling the garlands that appear at roadside memorials, reminding us that motorcycling has its risks. Other artists have also used the visual language of the memento mori in their work, acknowledging the darker side of riding. Monika Behrens, whose art frequently plays on this still-life tradition, has painted 13 hallucinogenic flowers on her helmet, alluding to the number’s associations with underground biker communities and illicit drugs. The plants pose a subtle challenge to this culture, subverting ‘the concept of the rough/tough biker by appearing soft and decorative’. 2 The combination of representational imagery and abstract patterning typical of Madeleine Kelly’s work also characterises her helmet. The artwork links the threatened flight paths of migratory birds with the sometimes perilous journeys that motorcyclists undertake and, in her words, brings to mind ‘battles against walls and borders in a changing world’. 3 Some artists have transposed imagery that they use in their practice to the form of the helmet, exploiting its convex shape. For example, Guan Wei, an artist known for his idiosyncratic approach, has juxtaposed motifs associated with China’s Cultural Revolution against images of rebellion from popular culture. As he explains, ‘motorcycle helmets, like ancient totem masks, medieval knights’ armours, and Ned Kelly’s famous [helmet], prompt me to think of their symbolic and ritualistic embodiments beyond their actual functions’. 4 Torres Strait Islander artist Opposite NELL / I live in here 2020 / Courtesy: The artist and STATION, Melbourne and Sydney / Photograph: Jenni Carter Below from left Callum McGrath / Road head 2020 / Courtesy: The artist; and eX de Medici / Bucket for a blood supply 2020 / Courtesy: The artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney and Singapore