A conversation with Lyle REIMER
Makeup artist, Lyle Reimer, also known as Lyle XOX to his 147,000 followers on Instagram, creates extravagant self portrait masterpieces made from entirely found and recycled objects. Published by Rizzoli in 2019 and granted an international photography award, Reimer’s coffee table book, Lyle XOX Head of Design showcases some of the artist’s most striking pieces of work. We spoke with Reimer who gave us insight on the book’s creation as well as his background, and design process.
You started off at MAC and in makeup. How did you come up with this idea of doing mixed media self portraits?
I was at MAC for 16 years and I was in their training department with two other women. There was an initiative we had that emphasized thinking outside the box. We wanted to create looks that we could post on social media. That was the little seed that had been planted.
I got an instagram account at that time and did something called the five day challenge. It was five very basic looks but then the other makeup artists expressed how much they loved what I was doing and that I should keep going.So I extended it to a ten day challenge, then the ten day challenge became the 20 day challenge and 2 month challenge. As I was doing [the looks] I had a moment when I was in my bathroom putting on makeup and I thought, ‘This is weird. I’m almost 40 and it’s just odd that i'm doing this,’ but it felt so right so it became my drug of choice. As the work continued I continued to reference my whole artist philosophy which has always been this whole mixing of art, discarded items, etc. I do paintings as well and they have a collage, mixed media element to them. The makeup became an extension of that same visual language.
Why did you decide to make a coffee table book of your self-portraits?
I wanted to do an art coffee table book for a very long time and when I began doing Lyle XOX there really was no exact linear path that I was thinking about. I was interested in it because I love to do what I do and the more I did it, the idea that I had years ago about having an art coffee table book kept coming back. I thought it would be really great to collect all of these images that i've been working on and put them together into a book. Over the years of doing Lyle XOX, the level of photography increased, the equipment that I used increased, and the studio space increased. I never considered myself a photographer but photography for me is a just a way to capture a moment so I think over the years of practice and having good people around me to bounce ideas off of and to get their insight really helped.
How did the relationship with the French art director, Fabien Baron (a collaborator of the book) begin?
Fabien Baron had been following my work for a while and when I first saw him in my feed I was like, ‘Wait, is this who I think it is?’ Sure enough it was the real Fabien and I was so honored that he was following the work, not just following, he was so supportive in the comments and sending direct messages. He really is a lovely supporter. I told him about my idea of a book with Rizzoli and he said he was in complete support. He wrote a letter on my behalf to Rizzoli and the head of publishing Charles Miers. Malcolm Edwards, the hair stylist who is so phenomenal and has been such a great support also [wrote a letter]. Both of these individuals who I actually never even met personally wrote these beautiful letters. When I read these letters I actually started crying because I was so overwhelmed with just how beautiful the words were and how complementary it was. It was written by people who I have such respect for in the industry and who have such a wealth of experience. The way they talked about my work, it was quite overwhelming.
Charles Miers got on board right away. I think when you see letters coming in from those individuals you think, ‘Oh this is the real deal.’ [Meirs] said this is something unique and different and [Rizzoli] would love to do this. That’s how [the book] began. It was definitely a labor of love, next to a lot of work between choosing all the images and going back and forth from Vancouver to New York for meetings.
The first time I sat down at Baron & Baron in New York at this long table in this business meeting with all these people from Rizzoli there, I’m sitting next to Fabien and the screen comes on at the end of the table and it says “Lyle XOX”, showing the mock up for the book. The tears just formed in my eyes, and Fabien said ‘You don't like it?’ and I responded, ‘I love it. I’m just having a moment here.’ It was one of those bucket list moments that I couldn't believe I was able to check off and be able to work with such amazing people.
How did the relationship between you and Viktor & Rolf begin?
Viktor and Rolf reached out to me personally and said, ‘We’re such big fans of you. We want you to come to Amsterdam so we can meet you.’ I hopped on a plane a month later to meet them and we had an amazing conversation. It was one of those talks where I was totally blown away at how down to earth they are as people and how kind and generous they are. I was moved. Every once in a while I'll get a text from Rolf and he’ll ask how things are going and again it’s totally surreal.
So they agreed to write the forward for the book. A few months later they were doing a 25th anniversary show in Amsterdam that I attended and while I was there we decided to shoot an image, that’s the image you see at the front of the book. Long story short, it was an amazing experience and it all came together. Being able to have a Rizzoli book done with such great people- I couldn't have asked for it to come together as well as it did. The response has been so positive.
Tell us about the materials used in your self-portraits.
The amount of used or recycled garbage pieces that I was first using was probably about 70% or so, and then there were other things that were purchased that I incorporated into the look. Eventually, I thought to do solely 100% found objects, and recycled garbage, and created the work from that. So now my work is 100% recycled. Even if you see sequins or beads you would typically find in a craft store, those are all from a sweater that has been taken apart, for example.
Now I'll go to dinner parties or friends will come over and it will always be this exchange of a bag of garbage for me to take to my studio. It's a given that there will always be this lovely exchange. I have people from all over the world send care packages of curated garbage and it's also their way of becoming part of the work in a sense. When these people see their actual piece in some form in the work they are always so excited and send a message right away saying thank you for using the items they sent.
Where do you look for inspiration for each of your creations?
That’s the ten million dollar question! The inspiration is so random; all over the map. The key that I personally tap into is to not censor the ideas that come into my mind. Once you start to overthink the source of the idea or how the concept is going to be perceived or whether or not it will be”cool”, it starts to take you off a path that is authentic in the creation of the work. I continually exercise that muscle of not censoring.
One day I was doing laundry and I opened the lint trap and thought, ‘Wow. This is such a beautiful composition of color and texture.’ I wanted to incorporate it into a look instead of just throwing it in the garbage. So, I took the dryer lint and mixed it with latex and that was the whole base of a look. Yes, it was a very random idea but you just kind of follow through on those concepts and go with it. A lot of the inspiration does come from the actual items. In my studio space i'm surrounded by so many different odds and ends. I have huge magnet boards on opposite ends in the studio so I'm constantly putting things up on them and it's always rearranged. I have a bunch of these styrofoam heads and those are always getting changed too. It's like a set that's always evolving so inspiration continues to be watered in essence.
What are some of your favorite materials to work with?
I love working with paper in different forms. I noticed that it is something I keep coming back to. I collected fashion and art magazines for years and years so I have a very healthy stack of that. As I go through them, I rip pages out that will become some sort of collage element into the actual piece. Things like old books and old photographs are in the genre of paper and those are quite often a nice part or accessory to the work that compliments the other objects.
What are some of the more challenging materials?
I love different metal pieces. The thing that becomes challenging is that they are so heavy and when I'm gluing everything to my face or to my head it can be a bit of a balancing act. Years and years ago, I hung this bucket from my nose and just the weight of it on my nostrils was so painful but I thought, ‘The pictures are going to look good you're going to have to bear with it.’ The things that we do for art.
How long does it take you to create each piece?
The actual makeup and the creation of the look on the day of a shoot can be 4 or 5 hours at times because I don't know what actually i’m doing in that moment. There’s times where I literally just stare into the mirror for 10-15 minutes, just figuring out, ‘Where does this color go? Where does the placement of this piece go?’ Once you block out your eyebrows and color starts being applied to your face, you can't just remove that and start again. Once that thing has been put down you commit to that and you keep building the look around that.
You collaborated with Vogue Italia on a shoot with Jeremy Scott, what was it like working with him?
Jeremy was just lovely and he related to me growing up in a small town and rural setting. We bonded over the idea of going back to a place where we felt like we didn't fit in. He’s just really down to earth, so sweet, so supportive of my work. We shot in LA for 4 days. They were very long days and we did several looks in a day. All of the pieces that were used were from an atelier in Milan from Moschino. They sent me this huge box of discarded prototypes and different accessory pieces, fabric swatches and shoe forms. And when I opened it up it was like Christmas to me; it was just so great. There was so much inspiration in that box so I created all the pieces in the studio and then packaged them up and brought them to LA. We shot with a photographer named Marcus Yam who is really good friends with Jeremy. He had presented the idea of collaborating with me to Jeremy and he was on board. That’s how it came about.
