Forget oil paints, ceramics and charcoal. Crystal Hodges and Linsey Burritt completed one of their most recent installations using those colorful plastic capsules found in grocery store vending machines that formerly held tiny toys and temporary tattoos. The finished piece used 3,000 of them.
Working with such an unconventional medium is nothing new for Hodges and Burritt. In fact, the duo, both 31, behind West Town-based Indo have built a name for themselves in Chicago over the past seven years with their use of unusual recycled materials and their airy, modern aesthetic. Four years after officially going into business together, the friends-who've also created works using egg cartons, vintage slides, old business cards and mannequin arms-are being noticed by clients across the country.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Crystal Hodges of Indo works on a paper sculpture at the artists' West Town studio.
On a November morning in their sunny work space, Hodges and Burritt are sealing tight tubes of printed paper with Elmer's glue sticks. They'd spent the previous evening fabricating cardboard snowflakes for a holiday window display at Toni Patisserie in the Loop, but today the women's focus is on re-creating a piece they made in March for Honey Maid.
A campaign for the graham cracker company featuring gay and biracial families had sparked a barrage of negative online feedback, so Burritt and Hodges were asked to use the actual printed comments to create something positive. And when Honey Maid found that the commercials had elicited far more support than disgust, those comments also were incorporated-the negative rolls of paper spelling "love" in script against a much larger canvas of the positive ones. The project went over so well, Burritt and Hodges were asked to do it all again for an LGBT benefit in L.A.
"[Honey Maid didn't know what they were going to get] just as much as we didn't know what we were going to get, so it was a big wonderful surprise for everybody how much it just flowed into this big beautiful thing," Hodges said.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
"Modern Family"s' Eric Stonestreet at The Paley Center for Media's 2014 LA Benefit Gala presented by Honey Maid, celebrating LGBT equality in media. Photo courtesy of ScenarioPhoto.com
In April, Facebook brought the artists on board to build a dangling wreath of salvaged laser-cut plastic for the company's F8 conference. The hard work paid off: Hodges and Burritt soon will be installing the piece permanently at Facebook's California headquarters.
Both projects are indicative of how the women's work has evolved. They mounted their first window display in 2007 at Wicker Park's City Soles using feathers, yarn and an old wine barrel from Salvage One. What once was more abstract now is infused with elements more tangibly significant to the client. But Hodges and Burritt still wouldn't classify their work as marketing.
"It's a hybrid. We think about this a lot, how we kind of skirt the line between art and design," Burritt said. "Our backgrounds are pretty technical and design-heavy, but the process and how we actually treat and create work is very artistic."
Studying graphic design and interiors, respectively, Burritt and Hodges, who met while working at a coffee shop as students at Columbia College, say they're uniquely equipped to help clients visualize their sometimes-out-there, never-kitschy design concepts and materials.
Often those materials are scraps Indo has on hand-discarded wood, extra promotional booklets, repurposed nail polish bottles-but other times, some imagination and detective work are required. In one instance, Burritt and Hodges couldn't find the quantity of paper needed for a Steppenwolf Theatre project, so they reached out to a recycling company that offered up 10,000 pounds of the stuff-and more than a few paper cuts, Hodges says. The vending machine capsules the women worked with on a 12-by-6-foot sign for children's furnishings store Land of Nod were a serendipitous eBay haul.
"We learn so much with each different material," Hodges said.
They had similar luck tracking down rope to separate their work areas when Indo moved into its new studio space in May. In front of the artfully roped-off cubicles, Hodges' 4-month-old daughter, June, who accompanies her mom to work each day, has room to practice crawling.
The workshop's walls are decorated with prints by photographer Stephanie Bassos, who shares the loft with Hodges, Burritt and florist The Foxglove Studio; and an art panel crafted from Domino's pizza boxes.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Linsey Burritt of Indo glues rolls of paper together at the duo's West Town studio.
Basement storage space was a must at the new digs, Burritt and Hodges say, since housing 10,000 plastic capsules or mountains of felt pieces can get a little overwhelming. At their homes in Humboldt Park and a few blocks away in West Town, respectively, Hodges and Burritt like to keep things tidy. But that doesn't mean they leave everything at the office-especially at a time of year when the designers' brand of creativity really comes in handy.
"Every year my mom sets up a gift wrapping station-and I always go a little crazy," Burritt said. "Everyone always jokes, 'All right, let's see what Linsey did this year.'"
Editor's note: This profile is part of a series about Chicagoans with unique jobs in the arts. Know someone who deserves to be profiled? Email redeye@tribune.com with the subject line "Arts jobs" or tweet us @redeyechicago.