Amnezi Skalk Kask

Mike Nelson 20/08/1967

Summary

Amnezi Skalk Kask (2012) is part of a serial work produced since the mid-1990s, for which Nelson invented a fictional gang of nomadic outsiders, The Amnesiacs. Members of this late-twentieth-century biker gang seem to have just left the spaces they inhabited, leaving behind these traces. Mixing personal history, religious iconography and art history, the Amnesiacs create new worlds and environments. They mix motifs and create shrines, co-opting everyday objects and elevating them to devotional status. The installations feature the residue of their creations including skull helmets and beach fires. The power of Amnezi Skalk Kask lies in the contradictions it encompasses – dichotomies of life and death, good versus evil, protection or harm.