Whitelock's practice explores the enduring notion of the artist as a figure searching for meaning through making. His work examines the belief placed in the creative process as a way of understanding the human condition and our place in the world, while confronting the uncertainty and lack of resolution that often accompany artistic production. Drawing on familiar ideas of the artist as seeker and outsider, Whitelock considers how the artist's identity is formed and performed, and questions how much of that journey is shaped by inherited expectations of what an artist should be.