haphazard is pleased to present RAD/RAD/RAD, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles based film maker/ artist Carrie Schreck. In 2009, seeking a fuel efficient alternative in the gridlocked streets of LA, Schreck discovered a thriving community of moped aficionados. Conscious not to emulate the past, members of this community, part easy riders and part philosophers, embrace the absurdity of riding two-stroke engines that were definitely not designed for speed. In effect this group rejects speed as any kind of ultimate goal and in this endeavor they are radical. The signifier and the signified are often confused, squealing lawn mower motors are paired with killer attitudes, inside jokes, calculated self-tribalization, and rowdy gang names.
Schreck immersed herself in this new two-wheeled obsession with no holds barred. In the style of the “New Journalism,” she relentlessly documented the antics, histories and the histrionics of her circle of “gangs” for the past 7 years. Schreck gathered over 65,000 images and arguably generated a “historical” narrative of this movement. While engaging with and satirizing the “noir” - danger – component, her mostly black and white photographs of this eccentric group of moped soldiers remind us of Danny Lyon’s and Dennis Hopper’s. This body of vernacular “family” photography, unguarded and spontaneous and yet intensely personal and intimate, highlights the duality of documented images and personal reflection.
Her concerns with visual narrative structure led her to digital montages in the tropes of “essay-film”. RAD/RAD/RAD consists of an installation of these large format montages from this period. Furthermore, Carrie’s “gangs” will be interacting with the “art” by marking on and commenting upon them for the duration of the exhibit inside the gallery, further confusing the status of supposed authority and neutrality of gallery as an institution. RAD/RAD/RAD functions as more than a piece of documentary – it is also a rabbit hole to a candid underworld. In a world bereft of true rebellion but crying out for the real thing - it offers a portrait and of a subculture bent on redefining what it means to be “RAD” among other overused superlatives.
