Deborah Schamoni

Situated in the deserted pavilion by the Palace Hotel pool a group of white plastic stackable chairs carrying vintage black leather jackets, adorned with studs, patches and other details, suggest the presence of a female biker gang operating under the moniker ‘Violet Revs’. The myth of biker gangs’ avalanche-like descent on small towns causing light to severe havoc is rooted in the American fifties and related to the then dominant fear of “the other” including aliens, communists and African Americans. The original gangs were mainly male, however this installation hints at a female invasion referencing female biker gangs of the sixties and seventies as well as the photographs of Swiss photographer Karlheinz Weinberger, who documented teenage rockabilly and biker gangs in sixties Switzerland.

Text: Neville Wakefield
Curated by Neville Wakefield