Lord Whitney

A couple of weeks ago, Lord Whitney, aka Amy Lord and Rebekah Whitney, came in to uni to give a talk about themselves and their work, as well as setting a small brief for us all.

Leeds based Lord Whitney have created "life sized illustrations and installations" for a variety of different projects. They have created photo illustrations using hand made costumes and sets, as well as creating installations for events such as festivals, parties, window displays and for stage.

 

They spoke about how they got from uni to where they are now, which was really interesting. Rebekah was studying illustration, and Amy, photography, and it wasn't until the end of their 3rd year that they collaborated together on a project that sparked of their interest in making and crafting sets and illustrations that cold then be photographed, combining both of their skills. They were really great to listen to and spoke honestly about their experiences, which I think was really great for us all as we could all relate!

They talked about how they started out just making sets in their basements or kitchens and photographing them, using whatever they had to hand to build the sets. They also said that although they are getting more regular work now, it hasn't always been that way and they've had to have temp jobs periodically since they left uni. I think the overall message of their work was the power of hard work and dedication, and to just keeping creating and making work. They used a nice metaphor of people falling at the first hurdle, and the longer you keep going the more people will fall away around you, to describe working in the creative industry.

They showed us photos of their great studio in Leeds, that they totally transformed from an old, dusty attic space in a mill, into a huge and really cool studio realtively cheaply. I think that in itself had us all dreaming of getting a studio!

After the talk, they came up to our studio and we were able to have a chat with them and show them our work. They also set us a small week long brief that we could do if we wanted. It was to make an image (whether it be drawn, painted, photographed, etc.) of a compound noun, aka two nouns that together make another word e.g. blackboard, grasshopper, seafood, etc.

I'll post about it in a seperate post, but I teamed up with Matt Bray on the word 'Birdhouse' (or Housebird originally..), and we had some fun making a model. But for now I'll leave you with some more of Lord Whitney's work.......enjoy........