1 If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
A Lawyer – believe it or not it was performance art or law when I was choosing how to get out of my home town!
2 Name 3 of your least favourite artists.
Keith Haring – annoying
Mark Rothko – overused
3. Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
Early: Karen Finley and Marina Abramovich
Now: Iona Kewney and Marcia Farquhar
Fuck it… what about being Jeff Koons when he was getting to have sex with Ilona?!
4 What is your favourite ‘ism’?
Alchoholism.
Botchulism
5 What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?
“Loves It” – youtube
6. And the dumbest?
“Hates It” – youtube
7 Which artists would you most like to rip off, sorry, I mean appropriate as a critique of originality and authorship?
Taylor Mac. Kraftwerk. B.O.R.N
8 Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
Yes in a way. My art is live so it can only really happen with me there, so it has a direct reference to cost, it is simple for me to say a fee because it is related directly to time. In visual art it is harder, I feel sad for artists that spend a long time make amazing work and then they don’t get the direct reward for their time spent making it. But then some artists do nothing about selling work and live off the dole and that seems a little weird to me too; then its not a profession surely, it’s a hobby paid for by the government? I have always worked creating art for my own satisfaction AND for money.
9 What are the three big ideas that you would like your work to express?
Glamour
Fun
Danger
I wouldn’t say they are big ideas! Just the things I like to explore!
10 Are you a political artist?
No sir
11 How do you start the process of making work?
I get my concept right. Then within that framework I begin to create material that I feel goes explores it. I don’t just create willy nilly, that doesn’t work for me. I need boundaries and rules else I go wild. I grab some props or costumes and get into the studio and play.
12 What next?
I have a lot of sharings when making as I always have a key thing I want something to do in one of my shows and I need to always check that it works. I make little acts sewn together with improvised chat, so I work on getting the set list of acts right, and then I fuck with them onstage live, keeping myself on my toes so that everything always feels unpredictable and a little dangerous for my audience.
13 If Moma and the Tate and the Pompidou wanted to acquire one of your works each, which would you want them to have?
Moma and Pompidou would get “Sex Idiot”, my current work as its my favourite! Tate I would give something more risky, as I feel that is what it needs right now… I would begin research for my new show “7 Day Drunk” in one of their gallery spaces and let it all kick off!
14 Complete the following sentence “Blessed are the artists, for they
shall……”
create wonder from thin air no matter what you throw at them!
15 Complete the following sentence “Blessed are the curators, for they shall…”
spend many years paying back their MA’s!
16 Complete the following sentence “Blessed are the art critics, for they shall….”
Always be safe in a profession that keeps bad ex-artists in paid work!
17. What is your favourite cheese?
Probably Brie or Roquefort.
18. What’s next for you?
I have two previews of my new work “Sex Idiot” coming up to help get the work totally where I want it:
28th May – Pulse Fringe Festival, Ipswich 10pm
30th June – Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, London 7:30pm
Then I am in Edinburgh: 6-30th August @ 8:20pm @ The Den, Zoo Roxy
