Installation of Participant Observer: Will Westbrook and the The Elephant Six Collective

Photographer Will Westbrook was an art student at Louisiana Tech University in the early 1990s who unexpectedly died in 2006. However, Westbrook was an active visual artist and musician during his abbreviated life, playing in The Gerbils and other bands associated with The Elephant Six Collective.

Beginning October 8^th through the 29^th, the Bethea Gallery at Louisiana Tech University’s School of Design will host the exhibition Participant Observer: Will Westbrook & The Elephant Six Collective. The exhibition features a curated selection of Elephant 6 artifacts and albums to compliment Westbrook’s enlarged contact sheets and large-scale portraits of his Elephant 6 musical peers, including early images of Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum and the late Bill Doss of Olivia Tremor Control. Art curator, Beth Sale, a musician and visual artist rooted within The Elephant Six Collective, will speak at the exhibition’s opening reception at 5pm, Tuesday, October 8.

The Elephant 6 Collective (E6) originated in the early 1990s in and around Ruston, Louisiana, the home of Louisiana Tech University. Elephant 6 united a sprawling association of visual artists and musicians, many of whom were students working at Louisiana Tech University’s college radio station KLPI or had family members who worked on campus. The fact that Ruston is located along the east/west route between Atlanta and Dallas and the north/south route between Little Rock and New Orleans made Ruston a logical stop for traveling bands, such as Sebadoh, who were being played on the radio by E6 individuals. The radio station combined with the University’s art department inspired a strong DIY ethic to make recordings, host house concerts, and eventually get on the road. Some E6 folks, such as The Apples in Stereo founder Robert Schneider, landed in Denver, Colorado, while many other E6 members from Ruston eventually arrived in Athens, Georgia where they collaborated with more musicians and visual artists.

The growing Elephant 6 community resulted in many albums, including Olivia Tremor Control’s 1996 LP Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at the Cubist Castle, Elf Power’s 1997 record When the Red King Comes, and the tip of the Elephant 6 iceberg, Neutral Milk Hotel’s 1998 album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, which Magnet Magazine named the Best Album of the 1990s and was later the subject of Thirty-Three and a Third #29, a book series focusing on significant records.

There has been a resurgence of interest in The Elephant 6 Collective due to the 2022 publishing of Adam Clair’s book Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery, as well as the release of Chad Stockfleth’s feature length documentary The Elephant Six Recording Co. In 2024 Merge Records’ The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel, consisting of various 7”, 10” and 12” vinyl albums, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Boxed or Limited-Edition Package.

Participant Observer: Will Westbrook & The Elephant Six Collective, the exhibition came about when Louisiana Tech University School of Design was loaned a selection of negatives and contact sheets that a friend preserved after Westbrook’s death. Work then began to transform a folder of rescued portraits into a solo exhibition. School of Design Studio Art Professor Joey Slaughter, who grew up in an overlapping circle of friends with Westbrook, led the research to identify the individuals in the photographs. Professor Frank Hamrick, who witnessed many Elephant 6 concerts while studying photography in Athens, Georgia during the late 1990s and early 2000s, worked with the School of Design’s MFA graduate students to digitize and print the portraits for the exhibition.

Participant Observer: Will Westbrook & The Elephant Six Collective at Louisiana Tech University School of Design’s Bethea Gallery opens Tuesday, October 8 with Beth Sale’s lecture at 5pm, followed by a reception from 6-7pm. The gallery is open 2-6 on Sundays, 8am – 6pm Monday-Thursday, and 8am – 5pm on Fridays. Closed Saturdays.

Instagram: @latechsod

©Will Westbrook Self-Portrait 1990s Ruston, Louisiana

©Will Westbrook, Neutral Milk Hotel Contact Sheet #1 1998 Athens, Georgia

Participant Observer: Will Westbrook & The Elephant Six Collective

Tuesday, October 8 – Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Louisiana Tech University School of Design

1. Jay Taylor Visual Art Center, Bethea Gallery

1 Mayfield Avenue, Ruston, Louisiana, 71272

Lecture by Beth Sale: 5pm, Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Gallery Reception: 6pm, Tuesday, October 8, 2024

©Willl Westbook, Neutral Milk Hotel Contact Sheet #2 1998 Athens, Georgia

©Will Westbrook, Bill Doss, Image early 1990s, Ruston, Louisiana Founding member of: The Elephant Six Collective Olivia Tremor Control The Sunshine Fix Died 2012

©Will Westbrook, Bill Doss on Bicycle, Early 1990s, Founding member of Olivia Tremor Control The Sunshine Fix

©Will Westbrook, Eric Harris Played in various Elephant 6 bands. Portrait from photo session for the band Chocolate USA

©Will Westbrook, Jeff Mangum as Drum Head Founding member of Neutral Milk Hotel The drum head reappears as a collage illustration on NMH’s second album In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.

©Will Westbrook, Jeff Mangum & Beth Sale Jeff: Founding member of Neutral Milk Hotel Beth Sale: Painter and musician who provided album art and recorded with The Gerbils Image made around the time of NMH’s first album On Avery Island

©Will Westbrook, Jeff Mangum with First Guitar Early 1990s Ruston, Louisiana Founding member of: Neutral Milk Hotel

©Will Westbrook, John D’Azzo Founding member of The Gerbils

©Will Westbrook, Liza Wakeman Violinist Portrait from photo session for the band Chocolate USA

©Will Westbrook, Lou Barlow of Sebadoh 1990s, Tipitina’s, New Orleans A Massachusetts based band Sebadoh toured Louisiana and was admired by Will Westbrook and other Elephant 6 members.

©Will Westbrook, Scott Spillane Guitarist & Singer for The Gerbils Horn player & guitarist for Neutral Milk Hotel