1 If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
I'd be supervising the utterly essential and totally stupendous work at my custard factory on the Isle of Wight.
2 Name 3 of your least favourite artists.
There was a school of artists near Mannheim that I couldnt get on with , strange.
3. Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
Buster Keaton , look at his face as beautiful and inhuman as a butterfly.
4 What is your favourite ‘ism’?
Oh it has to be Foolish Romanticism mein leibling, with a side order of DaDaism sprinkled lovingly with Absurdism.
5 What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?
Confusion ,confusion its all utter confusion , the colours are all the wrong shape.
6. And the dumbest?
'It is humanly impossible to find any meaning in this work.' Absurdist Magazine Aug1966
7 Which artists would you most like to rip off, sorry, I mean appropriate as a critique of originality and authorship?
In the garden of cultivated influences and appropriations these fine fellows and ladies are rooted with me like in a brother and sisterhood by a single tread of truth:
-Gaz's rockin blues, Angela Carter, Beirut the band, Andre Ethier, Dana Schutz, Max Wall, Picasso, Henry Tonks, Jean Debuffet, Andre Butzer, Jonathan Meese, Soutine, Polish Poster Art, Studio Ghibli , English Popular prints, French 17th century toile wallpaper, Paul McCarthy, George Carl, Guston , Condo, Bosch, Test match Special, Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd, images of Bucking Broncos , Armen Eloyan, Allison Schulnik..., I'll stop now.
8 Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
I would love to give my paintings for free. However with the rising costs of alligator feed and the Arts Council cuts im having to ask for donations.
9 What are the three big ideas that you would like your work to express?
In my well thumbed , tattered copy of The Foolish Romantics Manifesto, the chapters on :' Foolishness, Awe and Wonder ',' Viewing the World through Soft Eyes' and 'The Hidden Menace of the Custard Cream', say it all for me.
10 Are you a political artist?
Yes . I believe in the dictatorship of art and that art is the last great revolution , we must all run into the streets ( i am ! ) and proclaim creativity as our only way of existence, that we are born to create and that art leads us to our soul purpose of being.
11 How do you start the process of making work?
I have an imitation Kurt Vonnegut writing bureau which i clean out every now and then. Down the back of the bureau i find blu-tak making sculptures out of sawdust and fluff . There's a whole gallery of thumb tacks , paperclips, quill nibs and rust . These pieces are the starting points for inspiring new work and ideas. Its enormously cathartic and satisfying to think that behind each cupboard and appliance lies the gem of a new concept.
12 What next?
Exactly.
13 If Moma and the Tate and the Pompidou wanted to acquire one of your works each, which would you want them to have?
I'm working on a series of enormous, exquisite canvases on themes which may change the face of contemporary art and the way we think about our existence on earth forever. They can have them if they want.
14 Complete the following sentence “Blessed art the artists, for they shall ..get down on their knees and play.”
15 Complete the following sentence “Blessed are the curators, for they are.. the custodians of the genius of Baron Gilvan”
16 Complete the following sentence “Blessed are the art critics, for they shall.. think with their hearts”
17. What is your favourite cheese?
In Dali's "The Persistence of Memory" , the painting has also been popularly known as "Soft Watches" or "Melting Clocks". The original idea came to Dalí on a hot summer's day when he was at home with a headache while Gala, his wife, was out shopping. After his meal, he noticed some half-eaten Camembert cheese and how runny it had become due to the heat of the sun. That night, while he had been searching his soul for something to paint and also eat, he dreamt of clocks melting on a landscape. He went back to the unfinished painting he had been working on, which had a plain landscape with rocky cliffs in the background and a tree on a platform. Over two or seven hours , he added in the melting camembert . Years later he changed it to veal , then a pair of slippers, a hammock, corduroy trousers until eventually pocket watches which is the iconic image we know today.
