The city of Aberdeen will play home to a series of weird and wonderful illustrated monsters as part of a project at this year’s Look Again festival.
Local artists and married couple, Gabrielle Reith and Philip Thompson, both alumni of Robert Gordon University’s (RGU) Gray’s School of Art, are creating a specialist publication, ‘Oor News – Oor Monsters’, which will be distributed for free at city centre locations during the festival, which runs from June 14 – 17.
The tabloid style newspaper will feature fun illustrations and stories in a challenging and thought-provoking way, inviting members of the public to engage with the artists and unleash their own creativity.
Gabi and Phil won a Seed Fund commission from Look Again, which this year will focus on the theme of ‘Serious Play’.
The annual festival of art and design is in its fourth year and encourages the public to become ‘a tourist in their own city’, looking at Aberdeen through fresh eyes.
Phil commented: “Oor Monsters is a running project, where each incarnation has been a new angle on the theme, exploring ideas, formats and techniques of making new work.
“From print to 3D, gallery and site specific, the Oor Monsters output has been a great opportunity to play and test new ideas, with the added benefit of working with likeminded and exciting artists from around the country.
“Oor News was inspired by recent trends in ‘Fake News’ and the difficulty in discerning what is true or not in the media, social or traditional.
“It has given us the opportunity to use the Oor Monsters theme in a traditional newspaper context, with ridiculous, over-the-top visuals and text in a fun format. It was also an opportunity to reach out to new and established artists and illustrators from Aberdeen and further afield.”
To find out more about Oor News and the Look Again 2018 festival please visit www.lookagainfetsival.co.uk.
