grunt gallery is pleased to present Brandon Vickerd’s Chopper. Based out of Toronto, Brandon Vickerd is an artist whose work ranges from site-specific interventions and public performances to object-based sculpture. Chopper is an exhibition of several sculptural objects that reference 1960s motorcycle exoskeletons abstracted beyond their utilitarian purpose. Materials include mechanical parts, fibreglass, foam, car paint and steel. The sleekness of these sculptures suggests minimalist futuristic forms; their shapes appear aerodynamic, evoking ideas of movement, speed and power. At further inspection, they also appear as unknown relics, distinguished from immediate recognition of their mimicked motorcycle reference.

“Providing a feeling of propulsion, the sculptures in this series seem to be haunted by a lapsed future. In the gleaming hardness of custom paint and polished steel is the faint reflection of the failed project of the futurists and utopian dreamers.”