Remembering Kenny Blake: Life-sized sculpture

As some of you may recall I'm an avid motorbike rider. I've ridden on the track and on public roads and on some very fast machinery. I never raced as such as I never really had the nerve, or the funds, however I've done a lot of riding over the years.

One of my favourite rides was from Adelaide to Strathalbyn, a quaint little rural town 55 kilometres from Adelaide. The road winds through scrub and farming land and offers nice sweeping corners and reasonable straights allowing me to get my bike opened up and screaming. It's generally a fast ride. I'd ride up there, have a pasty or pie and a coffee then sit around and watch the world go by. It's a nice spot and on a reasonable day is always full of people on bikes, locals and tourists and people looking take advantage of the idyllic location. It's somewhat of a destination for bike-riders due to the nice ride there, open road and fast sweeping corners.

Strathalbyn is one of South Australia's most picturesque and pretty towns where one can immerse themselves in fine foods, wines, shopping, antiquing or just relaxing like I tend to do.

Over the weekend I headed there and was pleasantly surprised to see the memorial to one of Australia's most celebrated bike riders has been completed and installed. Yes, I had a pie too :)

The Man

Kenny Blake was born in Strathalbyn, South Australia in 1945. As a young lad he displayed an extraordinary ability on a motorbike and went on to become one of Australia's most celebrated riders as an 11 times Australian Motorcycle Champion.

In 1981 he went to the Isle of Man to compete in the TT, arguably the most dangerous of motorcycle races in the world. It was intended to be his final race before he retired.

The race is run over six (6) laps each lap being 37.73 mi (60.725 km) long. On the fifth lap Kenny, holding in eighth position, after starting last due to a fuel issue. He had passed over 103 riders! Unfortunately Kenny was killed after his bike aquaplaned and he slid off and hit a concrete post. He was killed instantly.

The Memorial

The memorial statue depicts Kenny Blake on his 1976 Suzuki RG500 bike and is made from engine components, assorted mechanical and suspension parts, hand-tools and general motorcycle bits and pieces including chains and sprockets. It is a life-sized replica of rider and bike in mid-race and the stance of the sculpture captures a pose similar to that of riders in Kenny’s era of racing.

The Artist

The artist who created this memorial statue is James Stewart from the coastal town of Goolwa. James is an artist, photographer, illustrator and, of course, a sculptor who specialises in assemblage art which is, essentially, creating artistic pieces from scrap, recycled and new metal items. Rusty Fish Gallery

The sculpture

Here's the right side of the sculpture. If you look carefully you will see all the little nuts and bolts, tools, cogs, wheels, springs and chains that have come together to create this miraculous piece. All of the items have been sourced from motor bikes.

Here's the back end of the piece. I think it's amazing how the sculptor has captured the perception of speed of the bike and the riders position is what you would expect to see whilst racing.

Unfortunately my images don't do the piece real justice and you'd need to be there in the flesh, like I was, to comprehend the true mastery of this artwork.

I wrote a piece a little while ago called Getting a knee down and you can see the rider doing just that here. Again, it's interesting how the sculptor seems to have captured the speed and movement. Obviously to get a bike to corner at speed the rider has to lean it over relying on a fine balance of mechanical grip (the tyres) and centrifugal force to keep the bike upright and moving through the corner.

Here's a closer shot of the little bits and pieces that make up the artwork. The sculpture has been crafted so well that one can hardly even see the welds joining everything together.

This one shows a close up of the helmet and visor which you can see is made up of drill bits, spanners and wrenches, chains, nuts and bolts. Can you imagine laying all of this out and getting it welded together? I think it's truly inspiring work.

So, there you have it. If you get to Adelaide someday, or live here already, and find yourself in Strathalbyn make sure you get to High Street and take a look at this memorial. Even if you do't like bikes just the sheer work involved in this memorial will blow you away.

If you're interested in what a lap of the Isle of Man TT is like please take a look at the video below. It's insane. Kenny died in very tragic circumstances however we all die. I don't know for certain but I'm sure if given the choice on how to die Kenny would probably choose to go out doing what he loved. Watch the video...