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Arty
interviews Alex
Where did you
grow up?
In reality
- Nottingham, but in my imagination, I spent my summers among the
silver birches and cherry trees of a small estate 150 miles south
of Moscow. I had long brown hair, wore starched white dresses, climbed
trees, wrote poetry and was suffused with the deep melancholia of
the Russian soul.
Is there a new Girly sensibility in Art?
There are two huge words in this question, like elephants trampling
on mice. It depends what you mean by Girly and what you mean by
Art. It also depends on where you cast your gaze.
I also find the word sensibility problematic, catching it would
be like watching a dewdrop falling off a spiders webb.
New somehow expects novelty, like some shiny gadget that soon become
obsolete, that thing that they put into white goods so that you
have to buy a new one every five years.
Art- is what? The contemporary art scene in London? Berlin? New
York? Belize?Afghanistan? Is it the clutch of art galleries around
East London? Is it the type of work which wins the Turner Prize
or what the Sun is writing about these days? Is is what Art Monthly,
Frieze, Modern Painters,Sarah Kent or Matthew Collings defines?
If by Girly you mean bolshy, arsey, pretty, irrelevant, naughty,
unapologetic, strong, disrespectful, self assured, shy and hesitant,
gothic and punky, nostalgic, romantic not ironic or distant, not
self consciously cleverdicky, which does not consider itself to
be both intellectually superior and showy offy shocking, to a type
of work which does not present a cold shoulder to anything which
is evidently handmade and heartfelt, to an inconspicuous, emotional,
sentimental, quietly revolutionary aesthetic, which takes as references;
literature, musings, daydreams, wishes, all that is trashy, angry,
poetic, twinkling, dark, shiny, small scale, huge, ricky tiky, unfinished,
unhampered by snobbery or technique, which asserts itself though
a hesitant, witty emotional charge and which does not apologise
or explain - then my answer would have to be - I don’t know.
What star sign are you? I do not believe in star signs.
What influences and inspires you?
Sophie von Hellerman, Sarah Doyle, Delaine Le Bas, Annabel Dover,
Georgina Starr, Cathy Lomax, Frieda Khalo, Peter Blake, George Shaw,
John Currin, Stella Vine, The Slits, Nadia Hebson, Pat O Connor,
Patti Smith, Gina Birch from the Raincoats, Michael Bracewell, Ska,Bluebeat,
St Francis of Assisi, Liz Neal, early David Bowie, Manet, Caravaggio,
Fragonnard, Modigliani, The Pre-Raphelites, Gwen John, Jean Genet,
Joe Strummer, Louise Bourgeoise, Paris 1968, Rockabillly rebels,
The Ronettes, Karen Kilimnik, Kara Walker.
Is it important or irrelevant for women artists to engage with the
art world on a political level?
I think it is important for artists (men, women or Martian) to engage
with what concerns them at the particular moment they are making
the work.
Is your work particularly female or feminine? No
Do you think little girls are made of sugar and spice and all things
nice?
Yes and also slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails.
This interview
appears in the February 2004 issue of Arty
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