Le Gun workshop part 1 - talk

 Working together we probably get more imaginative because we go in directions none of us would come up with on our own. We are probably braver as a group because we know if it all goes wrong we will go down together laughing! *

We went to the first Le Gun Art School/drawing workshop at Red Gallery in Shoreditch on Saturday.

Talk

Neal and Robert gave us a talk at the beginning about how they came together at the Royal College of Art, when Neal put up a poster asking for people wanting to contribute to an art magazine.

They put on events and parties in the college bar to raise funds, and started working on big collaborative drawings at the parties. From this grew their way of working on large scale collaborative projects. At some point they got commissioned to decorate a shop/bar in Hackney and the work went from 2D to 3D, starting as drawings and translating into cardboard furniture and artefacts based on the drawings.

They don't have much money for materials so use cardboard and papier mache to construct installations. (When they were commissioned by the V&A for Memory Palace, they were funded to hire prop makers to make some of their drawings into 3D objects.)

Le Gun Ambulance - V&A photo

Le Gun Ambulance - V&A photo

They got one lucky break when someone gave them a residency in an old abandoned traditional cobbler's shop in Hackney. The family were not interested in all the things left behind so they displayed their work amongst all the old things in the shop.

In their collaborations they talk through the ideas and come up with stories, histories and mythologies. Listening to music during their work and song lyrics and imagery would find their way into their drawings. (Eighties power ballads were one influence mentioned.)

They also talked about art historical influences - Tristan Tzara and Dada cut up techniques, William Burroughs, anarchist French newspaper L'Assiette au Beurre from the 1900s, Andrzej Klimowski, graphic designer and illustration teacher at the RCA.

Tzara manifesto

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When they started producing the magazine, it was interesting to see that they put the work on a wall to look at the layout and make sure it has a visual flow and rhythm, instead of just using the computer.

More Le Gun here and here.

More on the workshop and photos of our glorious Le Gun style drawings tomorrow.




* http://confessionsofadesigngeek.com/interview-neal-fox-le-gun/