Film UbuWebDavid Shrigley (b. 1968)
New Friends (2006)
The Flame (2007)
Sleep (2008)
Conveyer Belt (2009)
The Letter (2010)
Headless Drummer (2011)
Hello There (2012)
The Artist (2012)
Although Shrigley works in various media, he is best known for his mordantly humorous cartoons released in softcover books or postcard packs.
Shrigley finds humour in flat depictions of the inconsequential, the unavailing and the bizarre – although he is far fonder of violent or otherwise disquieting subject matter. Shrigley's work has two of the characteristics often encountered in outsider art – an odd viewpoint, and (in some of his work) a deliberately limited technique. His freehand line is often weak, which jars with his frequent use of a ruler; his forms are often very crude; and annotations in his drawings are poorly executed and frequently contain crossings-out (In authentic outsider art, the artist has no choice but to produce work in his or her own way, even if that work is unconventional in content and inept in execution. In contrast, it is likely that Shrigley has chosen his style and range of subject matter for comic effect).
As well as authoring several books, he directed the video for Blur's "Good Song" and also for Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's "Agnes, Queen of Sorrow". In 2005 designed a London Underground leaflet cover. Since 2005, he has contributed a cartoon for The Guardian's Weekend magazine every Saturday. Other projects have included the album Worried Noodles (Tom Lab, 2007) where musicians interpret his writings as lyrics, including collaborations by David Byrne, Hot Chip, and Franz Ferdinand.
Shrigley co-directed a film with director Chris Shepherd called Who I Am And What I Want, based on Shrigley's book of the same title. Kevin Eldon voiced its main character, Pete. Shrigley also produced a series of drawings and T-shirt designs for the 2006 Triptych festival, a Scottish music festival lasting for three to four days in three cities. He also designed twelve different covers for Deerhoof's 2007 record, Friend Opportunity. In the same year he also designed the title sequence for the film Hallam Foe, as well as the drawings and the writing in Hallam's on-screen diaries.
Shrigley was nominated for the 2013 Turner Prize. His Thumbs Up sculpture is expected to be installed on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth during 2016.
RESOURCES:
David Shrigleyin UbuWeb Sound