Hitler, The Bible and a deep-fat fryer - an interview with Littlewhitehead

Hitler, The Bible and a deep-fat fryer - an interview with Littlewhitehead

22 August, 2011
by: Tom Jeffreys

Tom Jeffreys talks to controversial art duo Littlewhitehead about their new work, the importance of humour and the pressure of history.

Art duo Littlewhitehead – consisting of Craig Little and Blake Whitehead – are possibly the fastest rising stars in the contemporary art world: the Gilbert and George or Jake and Dinos of our times, if you're a fan of such comparisons.

After meeting whilst studying in Glasgow, they had their first solo show in 2008 and were featured in the prestigious Bloomberg New Contemporaries; 2009 saw solo shows at The Bun House in Peckham and Gimpel Fils in Mayfair and in 2010 their work was some of the most talked about in Saatchi's Newspeak Part I. This year has seen the pair steal the show at London Art Fair, and in September they've got work in two London group shows –  Modern Frustrations at Sumarria Lunn and Air / Breathe, curated by Gazelli Art House.

So exactly what is it that has propelled the pair upwards at such speed? Well, for a start, their work is very direct, often unsettlingly so (particularly pieces like It Happened in the Corner – life-size sculptures of a group of hooded youths gathered threateningly in the corner of the gallery [above]) and it's often controversial – they've burnt artist monographs, made a Bible out of copies of Mein Kampf, and passed that essential rung in the career of any aspiring young artist – provoked outrage from the Daily Mail, for a simulated car-crash in Stoke-on-Trent.

But their work is also funny – both in terms of the artistic process and the finished result: “Humour's very important, Blake tells me, “not just in our work but also how we work.” Sometimes this side is clearly lost on the audience: “Within the finished work there’s always humour,” Blake insists, “however often the joke is just between us. That’s OK though. But as a tool, as a mechanism to scrutinise and question certain ideological or philosophical positions, humour’s priceless.”

As well as humour, the other element of Littlewhitehead's work that clearly appeals is their accessibility. And Blake agrees: “By using a visual language that is accessible (which a lot of our work is), it allows most people to relate to the work and bring to it their own histories and social-political circumstances. If our art manages to generate interest and dialogue with an audience, we’re content.”

Having said that though, this contrasts with their self-assured 'take-it-or-leave-it' attitude: “As long as we are happy that we like it [our work], we aren’t bothered what others think.” This isn't just posturing though; it's a considered stance: “If an artist becomes too concerned by the reception a work will have,” Blake explains, “he/she begins making the work for the audience. It’s like making something just because you think it’ll sell, it’s not what we’ve ever been about.”

On thing that strikes me is the similarity between Littlewhitehead and the YBAs – both in terms of career path (championed by Saatchi; slammed by the tabloid press) and in terms of the works themselves – strange, dark hyper-real sculpture have featured heavily in the careers of the Chapman Brothers, Gavin Turk and Ron Mueck (an Australian, but hey ho) whilst the desire to be both accessible and confrontational is something very much associated with the Hirst/Emin generation.

Littlewhitehead themselves are less convinced by this comparison however: “Our work is never about shock and it’s nothing to do with the YBAs,” they tell me. Instead, they argue, it “is maybe better understood as a product of and reaction against our background. We didn’t want to make the same kind of art that was present in Glasgow’s galleries – when we graduated, no one in Glasgow was really using realism and figuration. So initially we wanted to make work that could be accessed by everyone on one level but still function on a more conceptual level.”

It's therefore in this context, rather than as some kind of deliberate iconoclasm that one should view recent works like The Thing (a battered Bible) Deadwood (burnt monographs) and The Struggle (a Bible formed out of burnt copies of Hitler's manifesto/autobiography): “Initially,” Blake explains, “when we began working together, we were more concerned with the final aesthetic as opposed to the process involved in getting there. As our practise matures, we feel the process is becoming more and more important to us. We’re always trying to think of new ways to make work. These ways of working are very irreverent, often funny and sometimes poetic and they do often result in the destruction of the old.”

Like 'Deadwood' for example – made up of the ashes of 42 dead artists' monographs cast into the mould of a piece of found deadwood. “We were keen to explore our own relationship to art history and how in turn that relationship influences our process of making (or more precisely hinders our making process). History has a way of stifling ones work. Deadwood is a multi-layered symbol and pun that is reflective of the actual books (paper), the subjects of the books (dead male artists), the final object (a cast of deadwood) and our own very public impotence. So in this regard we are very aware of our own failings in relation to the weight of the canon and our attempts to erase history.”

Direct, accessible, funny, and conceptually challenging: that's Littlewhitehead, not so much the shock-art caricature of Daily Mail caricature. The only shock will be if they're not the biggest artists in the country before too long.

See Littlewhitehead at Gazelli Art House's Air / Breathe at Rochelle School from 9th September to 7th October 2011.
And Modern Frustrations at Sumarria Lunn from 8th to 30th September 2011.

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Tom Jeffreys