1 If you werent an artist, what else would you be?
Im not sure there is anything else Im really cut out to be. In my fantasy world I would love to be stand up comic. Bill Hicks is a hero of mine!
2 Name 3 of your least favourite artists.
Oh now this could get me in trouble… I should be vague or say dead ones, but I will be honest. I think 3 of the most over-rated artists currently are Tracey Emin, Nick Walker and Mr Brainwash. Now that?s how to win friends and influence people (in the art world).
3. Anytime, any place, which artists body would you most like to inhabit?
Nikki De Saint Phalle as she was building the Tarot Garden.
4 What is your favourite ism?
Craftivism
5 What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?
“Perhaps the most impudent work on offer was by Carrie Reichardt, whose ceramic aerosol spray-can ?Just My Fucking Luck Capitalism Collapses Just As My Work Hits The Art Market?, summed up what many artists are feeling as the economic downturn takes its toll on potential collectors” The Financial Times
6. And the dumbest?
Dear my-wicked-stuff, hello, What sort of fuckhead are you ? You?re blaming the Royal Family for the woes of the British economy! Fuck you and your slut designer.
– lordarchers
Ebay comment.
7 Which artists would you most like to rip off, sorry, I mean appropriate as a critique of originality and authorship?
I actually work within The Treatment Rooms Art Collective, so I am always nicking ideas from all those artists but beyond that any of the work by the Mutoid Waste Co, Wreckage International, Paul Scott, and War Boutique; – their work has undoubtedly influence mine. There are just too many to mention, I do not believe in the original idea, we are all part of the great big subconscious collective?
8 Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
Of course I do. I have to pay my bills like everyone else and I try to sell my work for a fair price.. I love to barter though. I would much rather be paid to do community/public art, but the funding for this is totally drying up, and funnily enough, councils are not big on employing anarchist artists.
9 What are the three big ideas that you would like your work to express?
No Gods, No Masters
The Revolution is Now
Believe in the power of Love
10 Are you a political artist?
I think all art is political. Artists do not work in a vacuum, they are tied to the society and times in which they live. Art cannot be “apolitical” anymore than people can. I do not use the term ?political artist? as it implies that the other art (real art) is not political. I would call myself an activist though and try hard to highlight the injustice of the political prisoners the Angola 3 and Kenny Zulu Whitmore who are close friends of mine.
11 How do you start the process of making work?
The same way I start most creative pursuits, with some good weed.
12 What next?
Usually it involves gathering my stuff together, be it ceramic transfers, tiles, plates, babys heads, found objects etc. A lot of my time is spent in sourcing unusual, rare or strange objects. At some point I will collect this together and play around with it until I find the perfect match. It might be the perfect ceramic transfer to the perfect vintage plate or a mutated ceramic doll to an antique French crucifixion. Ideas and themes do tend to re-occur in my work. I have been playing around with the same types of images and icons for years and years; it is just the medium that has changed. I have used doll heads and toy guns since 1991 in my degree show. I guess I am the same person, asking the same questions, just experimenting in new materials.
This is why I like to work collaboratively so much. I think for me it is through working with others that my world and therefore my art expands.
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 would like the Moma to buy my mosaic covered Tiki Love Truck, for a ridiculous amount of money. I would donate this cash to the widow of John Joe (Ash) Amador. Ash was my friend and the executed man, whose death mask sits on the top of this truck. I was a witness to his execution and shortly afterwards assisted Nick Reynolds in the making of his death mask. His wife wishes to set up a fund for the children of prisoners on death row in the USA.
I would like the Pompidou to acquire my ?Bibles, Bombs and Big Macs? piece, which is a mosaic panel from a war plane. It was given to me by the co-founder of the Mutoid Waste Company Joe Rush and exhibited in the amazing first ever Mutate Britain show at Cordy House. . And I would really love for the Tate to acquire my new A mini revolution the mosaic covered mini bonnet from the Mad in England show and display it now; I think it is rather of its time!
14 Complete the following sentence Blessed art the artists, for they shall…come up with new creative ideas
15 Complete the following sentence Blessed are the curators, for they shall provide a space for these new creative ideas
16 Complete the following sentence Blessed are the art critics, for they shall.pass judgement on these creative ideas because the rarely have any on their own
I have always loved the saying ?Blessed are the cracked for they let in the light?
17. What is your favourite cheese?
Cheesy balls.
18. Whats next for you?
First along with the Treatment Rooms Collective I will be creating a space in a nanopod in the Shangri-La field at this years Glastonbury Festival. Then in the summer I will be working with Nick Reynolds on a pushme-pullme double headed ceramic covered elephant for the Milan elephant parade and on a ceramic covered horse for Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum’s Horse parade.
You can see Carrie at
‘MAD IN ENGLAND’ Inkd 96 North Road, Brighton BN1 1YE On Until April 10th
More info :www.ink-d.co.uk/
