Love-a-Likes: Glenn Kitson’s Memes Are a Playful Intro to British Tradition

On Glenn Kitson’s Instagram – the place he’s cultivated a formidable following along with his signature model of lookalike memes – one submit, particularly, sees the filmmaker flip his slicing humour on himself. It’s a screenshot from LadBible, exhibiting a shirtless man who’s simply been tattooed with a Stone Island patch on an evening out, and is already fearing the consequences on his love life. “Glenn Kitson is a Bolton-born director and authentic co-founder of journal and artistic studio The Rig Out,” reads Kitson’s caption. “Now he’s recognized for being an attention-seeking bellend on Instagram who used to make fairly good memes however gave it as much as pursue a profession in bottom-of-the-barrel lookalike bollocks.”

Perhaps Kitson is being too arduous on himself, although. In any case, that “bottom-of-the-barrel lookalike bollocks” is the idea for his much-anticipated IDEA guide, LOVE-A-LIKES, which can get a super-exclusive launch at Dover Road Market on October 13, as a part of the shop’s Frieze Week celebrations. It’s additionally the principle attraction for his rising on-line fanbase, which counts members as numerous as Pam Hogg, Kate Beckinsale, Alan Carr, and David Thewlis (for Kitson, the latter is a selected level of delight).

Initially posted within the identify of enjoyable on the facet of his industrial filmmaking profession, Kitson’s memes draw upon a equally broad vary of British pop cultural icons, from Morrissey, Yungblud and Robbie Williams, to Alan Partridge, Limmy, and nearly each Coronation Road solid member. In case you’re unfamiliar with the format: every picture comes with a caption containing a potted biography of somebody who seems simply sufficient like its topic to spark a faint glimmer of recognition. Oh yeah, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner does look a bit like Begbie from Trainspotting.

The humour is commonly rooted in ridiculous pairings (see: Rod Hull and Emu as Charles and Camilla) or the blurring of the boundaries on the spectrum of “excessive” and “low” tradition. “I do know which finish I’m at,” Kitson says, with amusing. “I’m totally conscious of the place I’m on that scale.” Arguably, although, this blurriness is on the very centre of LOVE-A-LIKES, a extremely unique artwork guide stuffed with throwaway web memes.

Right here, in his personal phrases, Kitson talks about turning to memes to cheer folks up throughout lockdown, not becoming into the artwork world, and getting kicked off Twitter for bullying the EDL.

“I was a stylist. Lot of sportswear, streetwear, issues like that. Lot of menswear. After which I used to have {a magazine} referred to as The Rig Out. Mainly, it was only a few associates placing some editorial work collectively. We began doing movies for every one [and] we ended up catching the early wave of creating content material for manufacturers. After which I received a job with RSA movies [Ridley Scott’s production company] and I used to be there for just a few years, then simply began directing myself, making adverts, commercials, nonetheless doing vogue. Now I do quite a lot of adverts. I’ve simply shot the ITV World Cup marketing campaign. I’ve received a function in improvement with BFI and Movie 4. In order that’s the day job mainly.

“I all the time had a wholesome Instagram account. I all the time had just a few thousand, due to work stuff. And I’ve all the time had a way of humour, taking the piss out of myself, or a model, or streetwear typically. I used to have various followers on Twitter, folks like Kathy Burke and Bob Mortimer, who have been my heroes, however I received banned for hate speech, for bullying. I used to be bullying the EDL. The English Defence League. I imply, they’re all the time banging on about free speech anyway, these dickheads. Then all of them ganged up on me and received me booted off for swearing at them. I used to be a bit devastated by that. However since I received booted off Twitter, I lastly wrote my first function script. I used to be much more productive after that.

“I used to be placing good, fancy pictures on Instagram, movie pictures, medium format, 35mm. Everybody does that. There’s a great deal of it on Instagram. It’s good, it’s stunning, however I simply thought in lockdown, nobody desires to see work. They only need to have amusing, as a result of everybody was sort of depressed and a bit down. So I simply thought fuck it, you realize what, I’m simply gonna submit memes as a substitute. I used to make rather a lot, normally having a dig on the Tories or Piers Morgan or whoever, and occasionally I’d put a lookalike on.”

“I discover it humorous that after years of inventive work, I lastly get recognised for fucking memes. A lookalike that received a great deal of traction actually early on was Rodney from Solely Fools and Horses as Ryan Gosling from Drive. What I discover mad is what number of Individuals are following me, as a result of my humour is so parochial and British, and you realize, I’m no spring hen, so quite a lot of my references are fairly outdated too. They’re all like, outdated sitcoms, a great deal of Coronation Road and EastEnders. That British tradition is so iconic, and really nostalgic. It’s a shared language between lots of people. I feel quite a lot of Individuals, they may simply assume it’s daft.

“I’ll be the primary to meme myself. It’s all performed – except it’s the Tories and all that – it’s all performed with love. That’s why I referred to as the guide LOVE-A-LIKES, as a result of except it’s somebody I actually hate – after which I is perhaps a bit imply – it’s performed with enjoyable and love. Quite a lot of my following was once jacket lads and Stone Island, soccer hooliganism and informal tradition. And so I’m all the time ripping into it, as a result of it’s humorous. However solely as a result of I like it too, as a result of I’m obsessive about it myself.

“I’ve all the time felt a little bit of an outsider, I assume. I felt a bit exterior of all of the arty stuff. I’ve all the time felt it’s a closed store, slightly bit. This guide’s popping out for Frieze, which is mad; if I attempted to do it, to get one thing concerned with Frieze or Dover Road, it simply would not have labored [laughs]. I’ve been a fan of IDEA books for ages, so after they approached me, I used to be like, ‘you what?’. However they’ve clearly seen one thing that perhaps I didn’t see myself.”

Glenn Kitson will signal copies of LOVE-A-LIKES at Dover Road Market on the night of Thursday October 13, as a part of the shop’s Frieze Week massive night time out.