How to do art research i Do some academic written research. i The more obscure the better; obscurantism will stand in for originality. i Put the text up on a gallery wall with some relevant (or otherwise) artefacts from a museum. i It will look like a conceptual exhibition. i It’s much easier to make research look like art than trying to make art look like research. i i i i i i

I don’t do projects i A friend once told me to write a project and apply for a grant, I said that I didn’t  do projects. My work is my life, it’s an ongoing enquiry. He said that my life was not a project. Quite true; and neither is my art. Doctors used to prescribe Valium to people who suffered from anxiety, and later the drug companies started to produce anti-depressants. These anxiety sufferers were then given these anti-depressant drugs, […]

It’s a curator’s world i It is said that the Queen thinks that Britain smells like wet paint, because when she ‘visits’ Britain everything is newly-painted ahead of her path. Somewhat similarly, towards the end of the war Hitler’s Generals dared not tell him the truth that Germany could not win and that it was all going terribly badly. This also happened during the First World War as well-meaning Officers tried to put a positive spin on events in reports to General Haig. […]

Music and Art I Whilst as a student at Hornsey College of Art in the late 60s, Jesse Dale Cast was a part-time lecturer. This renowned realist painter who had paintings in the Tate was the same age as I am today, but to a 19 year old he seemed much older. I thought it great to have this age range and broad spectrum of opinion on the teaching staff at Hornsey. I Jesse rhetorically asked me “why is Gainsborough […]

Form and content i As an art student in the late 60s, I was told ‘to look after the formal qualities of the work and the content will look after itself’. i Being perverse I decided to look after the content and let the form look after itself. Indeed, this was the advice I used to give to students when I first started teaching. i Look after the content and the art will look after itself. i As I got […]