Artist Arthur Wicks with his curious creation Armoured Vehicle. Photo: Chris Roe.
If you’ve been walking along Fitzmaurice Street in recent weeks, there’s a good chance you’ve wondered about the man in the caged bicycle contraption in the window of Advision.
It’s hard to miss!
Dressed in a battered vintage suit, a decaying latex figure sits within a pedal-powered skeletal cage on four spiked wheels with a rocket perched on top like a weathervane.
During the evening, a video plays on the screen behind the vehicle, showing it in action on a European street and being pedalled by a man in a white latex mask.
The window belongs to well-known local designer and political provocateur Michael Agzarian, who recently decorated the nation’s bins with his ”Coalition Against the Coalition”.
It turns out that the contraption in his store is part of a performance art piece from the 1990s by local artist Arthur Wicks.
“He calls it Armoured Car,” says Michael examining the work in his window.
“The idea originally was that he wanted to ride this armoured car through from West to East Germany before the wall came down.”
Armoured Vehicle was part of a performance art piece named Peace Car Across Europe. Photo: Chris Roe.
Closer inspection reveals that the metallic-looking cage is in fact made of wood, right down to the dowel spikes on the wheels that show wear and tear from its journey across parts of Europe.
“Do you hear that noise?” asks Michael playing the video of Arthur wobbling his way across a busy German road to the sounds of traffic and a squealing claxon.
“He had that alarm going on a speaker inside his jacket all the time. Must have driven him mad!”
Michael says the piece has attracted great interest.
“I’ve had people come in and touch it and feel it and look around,” he says.
“It’s been in exhibitions in galleries in Berlin, in Melbourne and in Wagga, but he reckons it’s been great here because people can actually walk around it and interact with it.”
The man himself, Arthur Wicks, has enjoyed seeing the work find a new audience.
“The sculptural objects were constructed back in 1990, initially to be part of a performance work in the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, titled The Battlefield,” he explains.
Later that year Armoured Vehicle was part of the Biennale of Sydney, and the German director of the event agreed to support Arthur’s dream to take it to Europe.
Calling the performance Peace Car Through Europe, Arthur pedalled the contraption on the streets of Amsterdam and Berlin the year after the infamous wall came down.
“For an armoured vehicle it’s all a bit wacky, really,” he laughs.
“I mean, it looks like it’s getting ready to launch a missile at something, but unless you’re going to attack, its defensive capability is zero.
“I mean, it’s made of wood, so all you’ve got to do is to put a match to it!”
Michael says the work will remain in the window for a few more weeks and Arthur encourages anyone who is interested to take a closer look.
“If anyone wants to go in and touch it and get closer and more intimate with it, please do,” Arthur says.
“I’m very grateful for Michael having it stay in his window for that length of time and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind people entering his shop.”
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