Glasgow duo littlewhitehead mine the abject and droll to forge works that bask in our collective anxieties.

By Ashley Crawford AUG 2014

Since their first show in Glasgow, Nothing Ever Happens Here, in 2008, the distinctive take-no-prisoners aesthetic of collaborative duo littlewhitehead has caused a stir – if not downright hysteria.

It’s not hard to garner why. Their more subtle works include a human tongue nailed to the bottom of a leather brogue (Howling Wolf) and a puppet-sporting human arm in the midst of being sawed (Puppet). It Happened In The Corner comprised an installation featuring a gang of hoodie-wearing fellows congregating in an ominous thug-pack stance. Elsewhere, a dead Chihuahua protruded from a wall via its head. Then there was Stoke, in which they crashed a car into a tree outside a theatre. In the trunk of the car they rigged up an audio loop of a continual desperate cry for help. Motor safety groups were outraged. A Good Samaritan broke into the car to try and free the ‘hostage’ in the trunk.

In 2010, The Guardian newspaper asked them to create a royal portrait of the Queen. littlewhitehead battered and deep-fried a mannequin’s head in fat, adorned it with a crown and titled the work The Horror.

But the coup de grace arguably came when littlewhitehead similarly battered and deep-fried a 200-year-old Bible, infuriating churchgoers. “Christians are always getting annoyed at something,” they quipped at the time.

littlewhitehead is the bizarre and ongoing collaboration between Glasgow-based artists Craig Little and Blake Whitehead. At times reminiscent of the abject aesthetic of Mike Kelley, their surreal juxtapositions inspire a visceral jolt. But according to... Subscribe to read this article in full