richard and christopher fairhead / god’s sketchbook

private view thursday 8th january. in residence 9-17th january. public viewing of the complete work 17th january, 12-5pm.

richard and christopher fairhead

richard and christopher fairhead are brothers and illustrators sharing a similar approach to illustration - a humorous exploration of the mundane realities of everyday life – making them perfect collaborators for this residency.

christopher: “my influences come from every day life, people, conversations, posters, animals, beards, tattoos, toys, bigfoot, wrestlers, signs, anything i find interesting or funny. recently i have been making fliers, posters and badges for a charity, ‘make less strangers’, and sold a small collective production of zines called ‘rico’ in brick lane.”

richard: “i have been drawing robots, wrestling bears, chatting unicorns and dancing foxes ever since i completed my degree in 2006. my pens and I have been depicting the ordinary and the everyday with a splash of bright colour and little bit of humour. not forgetting a cup of tea. my ideas and drawings have found their way into various uses including print, visuals and advertising. i have collaborated with vccp blue, ycn online, thechickgeek.co.uk, goodies corp and more. i enjoy anything hand drawn, bold and original. my influences are london, tv, ian stevenson, david bowie, night buses, robots, bears, hand drawn text, david shrigley and the people i meet out and about. at the moment I want to carry on scribbling and creating images that are a little different and make people smile.” www.richfairhead.co.uk

god’s sketchbook

in ‘god’s sketchbook’, richard and christopher together assume the role of fictional creator at the dawn of time. they explore the myriad creatures (and planetary features) that were prototyped in the beginning, alongside the musings and questions of their creators in the struggle to finish the job. real creatures that exist today are presented alongside reject creatures later shuffled out of the pack by evolution. the exhibition will offer a brief chance at omnipotence. the end result is an amusing and thought provoking look at what it means to create and especially what it feels like to create: by showing ‘the working out’ of the artist we are exposed to the highs and lows of the creative process, the successes and mistakes, and some quite funny and quite unexpected outcomes. ‘god’s sketchbook’ was originally a set of sketchbooks, which lead to a selection of final A2 drawings for a degree show. the fairhead brothers will continue their evolutionary journey at the whitechapel gift shop during the 10 days of their residency. the project will be designed around the space, to incorporate every possible façade. the drawings will flow throughout the interior, from framed pieces to the walls and surrounding space as if it were an extended sketchbook. influenced by the area around the whitechapel gift shop, we can expect to see elements of local characters, landmarks and animals introduced to the sketchbook. at the same time, they hope to involve the community in creating their own original images, so the sketchbook begins to take on a life of it’s own influenced by the humanity around it. lastly, they hope that the project will evoke a creative response from the many galleries and artists in the area encouraging a creative exchange with the gift shop.