Of the many faces who
passed through Andy Warhol's Silver Factory in the swinging 1960s and 70s, Billy
Name was undoubtedly its most important unsung hero. As the story goes, when Warhol first
picked up a movie camera, finished with painting forever, he thrust his old Pentax at Name, with the
instructions: "Billy, you do the photography now, because I'm going to do
movies." Name had an eye for taking photographs, and he duly assumed the role
of unofficial photographer in his years hanging out at the Factory. "As I
recall he was always at the factory," John Cale remembers. "The pimpernel of the silver ballroom
– sleeping there as a wide-eyed guard, then much later disappearing into his
room for months at a time only to emerge, to take pictures, then retreat back
into silent oblivion."
Name not only
documented the Factory, but also played a pivotal role in constructing it.
Previously a lighting designer, his first encounter with amphetamines was
instrumental in the birth of his signature silver interior decorating style,
and he employed it with abandon in the film and theater sets he worked on
throughout the 1960s. When Warhol visited
Name’s apartment to attend one of his famous hair-cutting parties soon
afterwards – Name’s father had been a barber – he invited Name to recreate the
style at his new loft, a former hat factory on East 47th Street. "Andy didn’t
just see a guy's place and think, 'That’s a real kook – he's got foil all over
the place,'" Name recalls. "He saw that I had done an installation."
Name duly hung the
walls with aluminium foil, and sprayed everything with Krylon paint. The Silver
Factory was born. The silver of the factory
walls reverberates in Name's photography – a seemingly never-ending series of
lunar faces peering out from between the Factory walls; building installations,
making prints, or having parties. "I'm very much interested in portraiture, not
only of people but of space, or people in spaces. When I
take a picture I'm usually looking at a certain structural composition of the
whole thing that is going on live, and when it's just perfect my finger pushes
the button... The camera, when I first started using it, wasn't just about
snapshots. I could see things that were matched to my aesthetic framework in that click."
