Last Tuesday and today I have attended workshops run by Andrew Lanyon.
Andrew Lanyon has produced and produces very well made, fascinating books as well as some slightly shoddy but charming films.
His books utilises the aesthetic of the past but not in that faux-Victorian way that some contemporary illustration can feel to me. Sometimes when visual artists use such imagery it can perform a type of surface disconnect, this isn't good. Andrew Lanyon work doesn't do that, the books have the feel of an authentic evolving world, idiosyncraticly built of 1930's 40's 50's magazines and technical books. This is still his world from the time he grew up in and forms the framework of the things he makes. There's a huge depth to this world of structure and stories real, imagined or hinted at. This all works through a kind of processed rationalised madness that authenticates the world / makes it work.
He had a great deal to say of his perspective on how to produce work and thoughts about bookmaking including;
'A book is viewed at the same distance from which it was made'
Which I really liked so I noted it down, and now put it on here.
