Esther and Lyn with The Cossack, at The Yard, London

Classic or custom motorbikes get ’recycled’ - often passed on to new owners or modified, customised and upgraded. They represent not only a nostalgia for the past but a model for the re-use of objects. Caryn Simonson’s work exploits the use of old objects and found materials to render the functional dysfunctional or transform the readings of objects causing us to re-think their context often in relation to identity and gender.

This work forms part of a series of digital photographs depicting motorbikes which are customised using fabrics and found objects from charity shops, personal junk etc.. Semi-documentary portraits are staged in ways to open up questions around individuality or group allegiance, fact and fiction.