Simone LeAmon
MOTO Showroom: the return of desire

'At precisely this moment someone, somewhere is getting ready to ride.’ - Melissa Holbrook Pierson

Anchored to the image of the Ducati motorcycle, MOTO Showroom was an interdisciplinary exhibition by Melbourne-based artist Simone LeAmon. Incorporating design, animation, digital prints and numerous other elements, MOTO Showroom was an exploration of design, desire, and their fusion in contemporary culture. With a Ducati 916 motorcycle as the exhibition’s centrepiece, MOTO Showroom provided a rich forum for the discussion of the converging dynamics between design, craft, production, technology and the negotiation of the modern art object. Working with a team of industry professionals, including animator Daryl Munton and architect David Morrisson, toward the realisation of visuals and playful objects, LeAmon shifted the dialogue between desire and design in a dazzling exploration of the fluctuating relationship between these two contemporary phenomena.¨MOTO Showroom was a chick’s fantasy. LeAmon designed racing gear for herself featuring custom graphics, tattoos and ‘Moto-language,’ reinterpreting the traditional gender biases of motorcycle culture. Simone LeAmon is a visual artist and partner in n+1 equals interdisciplinary studio with artist Charles Anderson.

Simone graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1992 and is currently completing a Masters in Industrial Design at RMIT University, Melbourne. Simone has exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions in Australia in venues such as Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Monash University Gallery, RMIT Project Space, First Floor artists and writers space, Boutwell Draper Gallery Sydney, Object Galleries Sydney, Melbourne Museum, Federation Square and the Australian Embassy in Tokyo. Solo projects include Conceptual Models, the presentation of speculative design methods at Salone Internazionale del Mobile Milan 2001, Out of Brugskunst (use-art) 1999-04 and MOTO Showroom 2002-3.

Simone is currently coordinating and participating in the Quiet Collision project, a November 2003 presentation of Australian Visual Art at Association Viafarini and CareOf contemporary art spaces in Milan. 

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The artist wishes fo thank David Morison. Daryl Munton, Mark Perini Stephen Piper. Ducati owners and riders club of Victoria, Paul Chiodo, Andrea Blundell, Justin Clemens, Kjell Grant, Sean Hogan, LA Designs, lan Falloon and all the Ducatiriders who parked their bikes at 200 Gertrude Street between 5-8pm on 29 August 2003.

Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces acknowledges the support of the Victorian Goverment through Arts Victoria – the Department of Premier and Cabinet: and the Australia Council, the Federal Government's arts funding and advisory body.

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Catalogue text by Justin Clemens

Supported by Arts Victoria, Alias wavefront, BG Architecture, KL Architecture, Flock Finishers Australia and Campari.