LIVE FASTER
Let your hair down and feel the full-throttle rush of life in the fast lane in Johnny Romeo’s homage to speed queens, Live Faster. The painting reimagines Roy Lichtenstein’s ‘Girl with Hair Ribbon’ (1965) through a bold, manga-inspired lens, transforming the Pop Art legend’s archetypal blonde bombshell into a confident motorhead maiden ready to take on the world. Aesthetically, references to classic Japanese manga such as Speed Racer imbue the work with a fun, frenetic energy, while nodding to ‘Girl With Hair Ribbon’ being part of the collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Exchanging her familiar ribbon for a vintage, open-faced racing helmet and a pair of stylish glasses, Romeo’s high-octane heroine is no longer pinned down by antiquated beauty standards and societal expectations. With her long, cascading hair flowing freely in the wind, this speedy siren has fully embraced the freedom of the open road as she combines the fashionable glamour of her past life with the defiant independence of ‘living faster’. Romeo powerfully captures this sentiment by transforming the phrase ‘Stay Strong’ into the anthemic word assemblage ‘Slay Strong’, highlighting the driver’s journey from merely surviving to thriving in a fast-paced world where forward motion is the name of the game. Read in this light, the addition of the star symbol on the woman’s helmet embodies the prosperity that she has achieved through her newfound self-belief. Live Faster is a celebration of the women who refuse to take things slow, who unapologetically take life by the wheel and drive headfirst into the unknown on their own terms.