Chintz my ride

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 conference paper explored a series of my digital photographs (exhibited at the conference) 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. The paper contextualised these works in relation to these themes and photography, truth and evidence, portraiture and issues of sustainability.

• http://ijms.nova.edu