I have a lot of correspondence with people
with mental health problems who see me as
a kind of kindred spirit, or as a person who’s
providing them with some kind of therapy,
or some kind of alternative way of thinking
that’s useful to them.
And that’s something that I find very – it
makes me very happy.
I think the nature of the work has probably changed
as I’ve got older.
I think it was darker and more morbid, more
depressing before, whereas it’s kind of
lighter.
There is a certain – a kindness and generosity
is perhaps more thinly veiled than it ever
was before.
And I think that’s probably because, as
a person I just don’t have the stomach for
the misery anymore [laughs].
Even though I’m sort of a cartoonist, and
my work sort of is cartoons, I’ve never
actually been interested in cartoons.
Like, I don’t really have any interest in
graphic novels and stuff.
My education’s all about fine art – it’s
all about Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol.
Going back to what Dada was, it was just something that was completely other –
that was anarchic and rebellious.
Taking everything and subverting everything
– doing things that were completely absurd.
And the comedy of it, I guess, really excited
me.
[horse's hooves galloping]
[washing machines]
- Good morning.
Good morning to you.
[sound of horse climbing into washing machine and cycle beginning]
Excuse me sir?
What?
It is not permitted to put your horse in the
washing machine.
I’ve always made work that’s intuitive,
and responds to a certain situation, and it’s -
I suppose it’s become a certain body
of work where there’s certain facets to it.
But It’s really just happened by accident to
some extent, but then I’m really aware that
that way of making work is sort of the reason
why I cant do anything different.
I quite like that one, but -
the egg’s not very good.
You know, the drawings are - just end up being whatever gets drawn in a certain time
and the ones that don’t get torn up and thrown in the bin.
I go to exhibitions and I see other people’s
art, and I’m like, ‘wow, that’s great.
I really love that work’.
But I know that I cant make that kind of work
– because I’m sort of not allowed.
And whilst, you know, I do sort of deviate
and make performance things and make other
things, I’m on this path, and I can’t
suddenly just be a shape shifter and make
something else.
A series of electric guitars that I made,
where – I designed them –
my friend Tom actually made them.
They’re sort of designed aesthetically rather
than in order to play well.
[guitar being played]
I think when you’re in your early 20s you don’t, I don’t know, I didn’t really
have a perception of what a career as an artist could be.
I didn’t really think that was an option
at the time, so I think that’s why I started
making books.
I thought that maybe I could have a career
as a cartoonist, even though I didn’t really
know very much about cartoons or graphic art,
and I actually really liked making the books,
and I liked making the drawings and suddenly
that became the central part of what I did.
A completely another way to make sense of
the world and another way to make art.
I guess you have to understand that this was
in the age prior to the internet, so had I
graduated, I don’t know – 15 years later,
maybe I would have done something rather different.
I’ve been a professional artist I suppose
for more than 20 years, and been an artist,
well been a student artist and a struggling
artist for my entire adult life, but I do
think that making art is a healthy thing for
people to do, so I think that I’m lucky
to do that as a career.
I think I’ve become more aware of my role,
or what I perceive to be my role, in the world,
and that is to try and make it a better place
rather than to make people uncomfortable [laughs].
So there is a message, a positive, optimistic
message, buried beneath the mordant, darkness
within my work – hopefully.
And people just see it as being ironic because
of what I’ve done before [laughs], whereas
actually I genuinely mean it.
