Commissioner: Bloodstock Festival
Artist: Alan Williams
Subject: Lemmy Kilmister
Year: 2024
Project type: Memorial sculpture / portrait commission
Materials: Reclaimed mechanical and industrial components, Harley-Davidson parts, Challenger 2 components and forged steel
Unveiled: 9 August 2024
Display: Bloodstock Festival and Rock City, Nottingham
In March 2024, Bloodstock Festival commissioned Alan Williams to create a bust of Lemmy Kilmister to house some of Lemmy’s ashes.
Alan constructed the portrait from reclaimed mechanical and industrial components, including Harley-Davidson parts and components from a Challenger 2 tank. The finished sculpture was unveiled at Bloodstock Festival on 9 August 2024 and is displayed at Rock City in Nottingham between its annual appearances at the festival.
The commission involved making a recognisable portrait in Alan’s usual materials while also building the ashes securely into the sculpture.
Bloodstock approached Alan in March 2024 with the commission.
The sculpture was to portray Lemmy and permanently contain some of his ashes. That made the internal construction part of the brief from the beginning rather than something that could be added once the portrait was finished.
Alan also needed enough reference material to establish the likeness before he began resolving the face through steel and mechanical components.
Portrait work asks different questions from Alan’s animal and imagined forms.
With a face, relatively small changes in the brow, jaw, cheek or position of the mouth can alter the likeness considerably. Alan had to find those shapes within a material language that normally begins with old machinery, tools and pieces of engineering.
The portrait depicts Lemmy as he appeared around the early 1980s.
Alan worked from photographic reference, building the underlying structure before gradually bringing the mechanical components into the face, hair, clothing and surrounding form.
The material had an unusually direct relationship with the subject.
Parts from Harley-Davidson motorcycles were incorporated into the sculpture alongside pieces from a Challenger 2 tank and other reclaimed industrial material.
Alan did not need to disguise where those components had come from. Chain, gears, machined edges and other recognisable pieces remain visible when the sculpture is viewed closely.
Some pieces suggested a particular part of the portrait immediately. Others had to be cut, altered or combined with forged steel before they would sit correctly within the form.
Alan built the sculpture at his Sussex forge.
The face needed considerably more control than many larger forms because the likeness depends on relatively small changes in surface and proportion.
Mechanical pieces were selected for their shape rather than simply filling the available space. Alan could then forge or fabricate the sections that could not be found among the reclaimed material.
The work developed gradually around the portrait and the internal structure required for the ashes.
Part of the commission was to provide a permanent place within the sculpture for some of Lemmy’s ashes.
The container therefore had to be considered as part of the construction of the bust itself.
This requirement affected the internal structure while remaining separate from the visible portrait.
The finished bust was unveiled at Bloodstock Festival on 9 August 2024.
Its first public appearance placed the sculpture among the audience and community for whom Lemmy and Motörhead already had a long association with the festival.
Outside the festival, the sculpture is displayed at Rock City in Nottingham.
It returns to Bloodstock for the festival, giving the work an unusual life between the two settings rather than remaining permanently in one location.
Bladderwrack Gate
