Born to be Wild– Savoring the Design and the Desire of Motorcycles
Motorcycles in mainstream media
Motorcycles are so manly, right? Think about Steve McQueen in The Great Escape, Arthur Fonzarelli in tv’s Happy Days, and Daniel Craig’s James Bond. All chaps, radiating controlled coolness, astride thunderous, throbbing engines.
However, in Motorcycles– Design, Art, Desire, this summer’s blockbuster event at Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art (QAGoMA), you can find a mean red motorbike that was ridden by the fastest Australian female on two wheels, Kim Krebs.
How fast did she go? The numbers are difficult to visualize: 244 miles per hour. That is miles. In kilometers, that is a hair under 400 per hour. Consider the legal limit you can drive along the freeway and multiply it by four. She is still trying to go even faster.
Kreb’s record-breaking ride is one of a hundred bikes in the exhibition, drafted from collections around the globe by curators Charles M. Falco and Ultan Guilfoyle.
Bikes? In an art gallery?
This is a particular niche category exhibition that complies with comparable QAGoMA shows such as the fashion house Valentino Retrospective, Past/Present/Future (2010), California Design: Living In a Modern Way (2013-14), and Marvel: Creating the Cinematic Universe in 2017.
The Marvel exhibition attracted over a quarter of a million visitors, clearly suggesting that such shows, although singular, have broad allure.
QAGoMA director Chris Saines states the gallery works with a broad definition of what makes up modern culture. Accordingly, people that usually would not check out art galleries beat a path to this set for specialized exhibits. Niche shows appeal to specific demographics that are rusted on a commitment to their passion.
With the opening of Queensland’s borders adhering to coronavirus restrictions flawlessly coinciding with this exhibit, there will surely be a steady stream of two-wheeled followers heading to Brisbane.
However, this show will also enlighten and educate those passionate about design, modern history, pop culture, and art, who want to discover something new, and may start seeing motorcycles differently.
From original steampunk to future motors
Incorporating early models from the Victorian period (bicycles with an engine strapped to them, very steampunk), with the mid-20th century’s chrome muscle devices, to streamlined concept bikes of the future powered by electrical power, this event covers the motorcycle’s 150-year history.
All the big shots are here: Norton, Triumph, BSA, Ducati, Honda, and Kawasaki. Likewise, several bespoke style designers, including Australia’s Deus Ex Machina, whose ultracool Drover’s Dog (2009) fits a surfboard on the side.
Exhibition designer Michael O’Sullivan has used the gallery’s expansive ground floor significantly. The angular architecture reflects and amplifies the show’s stars, establishing this exhibit in addition to a simple electric motor show exposition.
They treated each item like an art object, shining chrome lit to perfection, placed just so. Information panels inform the curious layman, and digital projection screens reveal terrific motorbike movie instants to seal the deal.
Naturally, some elements within the layout of the design of the motorcycle show fine art values of their age, most notably German Bauhaus and Art Deco influences when bikes changed from the simple functionality of cost-effective transportation to visually pleasing status symbols.
Slow-moving bikers and low cyclists
The earliest known motorbike, and the first that exhibit visitors see, was created by Frenchman Louis-Guillaume Perreaux. Steam-powered, the 1871 model had a top speed of 14 kilometers per hour and was mostly made from wood, which would certainly not have been a comfortable ride.
Compared with the cruiser bikes a century later, especially by Harley-Davidson, when riders reclined on personalized bikes, such as the practically impossibly elongated Chopper, similar to the one ridden by Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in Easy Rider (1969 ).
On the eve of the event, land racer Krebs related what it feels like to ride over 200 miles per hour. She spoke of feeling serenity as she takes a trip so fast throughout the salt plains that the scream of her turbo-charged engine is left much behind her.
“What are you aiming for?” a reporter asked her.
“I am aiming for forever,” she replied.
Read the original article on The Conversation.
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