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BUTTERFLY
We're not interested in all the
rather crass and churlish tit-tat
which surrounded the Stuckism
art manifesto you founded with
Charles Thomson, or the vulgar
press coverage regarding your ex-
girlfriend Tracey Emin and her
special "tent" art piece which is
currently in New York as part of
the Sensation art show; but
nevertheless, would you like to
say anything about the sex,
the hatred and the bitterness, -
about that egocentric nightmare,
Tracey Emin?
BILLY CHILDISH
Well, I feel slightly protective of Tracey, but not of much of her
work. Not any of it actually. My feeling about ready-made art is that
it was once witty and clever - in 1914 - but not now. Conceptual
art now is very dull. Art based on ideas is essentially unintelligent,
it has no foundation: it's stupid. Ideas are usually stupid.
BUTTERFLY
Have you ever made conceptual art work?
BILLY CHILDISH
I made a conceptual piece of art once at college, in 1977: it was a
polythene bag hanging from the ceiling by string. Inside the bag
was some hardcore pornography and some used condoms: what I
called a "sex mobile". The college gave us a project title, "The
Bridal Suite", and I made this in response as I was so stunned that
they would give us such a useless title to make art from. Work
based on ideas is pathetic. If the young British art scene thinks any
conceptual work is anti-establishment, then they are in the shit-
house. I mean. in another sense, how come so called "alternative"
comedians do High-Street bank adverts? It's all gone horribly
wrong. Basically, the manifesto you mentioned is about painting
pictures; not about "painting".
BUTTERFLY
And painting is...?
BILLY CHILDISH
Painting is the only real anti-establishment, Tracey used to paint -
under my influence - very well. She will get back to that, no doubt
due to a natural instinct. Ideas in the end are futile. The Young
British Artists are purchased by bored middle-aged middle-class art
collectors who like a bit of rough. And Damien Hirst's work
wouldn't stand a chance outside a gallery, Art that must be in a
gallery to be recognised as art is not really art. Critics don't like
what we Stuckists do because we're not scared of bad pictures.
BUTTERFLY
What do you think about irony in art?
BILLY CHILDISH
Irony in art is totally dishonest. It's a very ugly thing. It just cuts
into the emotional experience of it and simply destroys the energy.
Irony in art is like a sideways sneer: it's a form of yobbishness, or
snobbishness, very much to do with the pathetic yob culture which
is now "in". Mainstream artists are cowards; it's all fashion. Gavin
Turk and the rest - they are New Romantic, not punk rock. They
are fashion: that's why their work is so vacuous. They all rely on
ideas, and artists simply don't have good ideas.
BUTTERFLY
What is a good idea?
BILLY CHILDISH
The rocking horse.
BUTTERFLY
You are working on several projects at moment, what are they?
BILLY CHILDISH
I am working on a novel called The Idiocy of Ideas, based on my
time at Waldslade secondary school for boys in 1970 - 76.
A brutal place. Helped form my opinion that it's good to be
ignorant, or at least not to be afraid of it. It's important to be able
to come face to face with one's inadequacies, rather than one's
cleverness. Cleverness is an egocentric lie.
BUTTERFLY
What do you mean?
BILLY CHILDISH
Well, cleverness is a smokescreen - a cheap way of getting out of a
problem. Hence: don't do a picture that will not work, just have a -
clever idea and congratulate yourself.
Van Gogh understood the spirituality in art, and he also under-
stood the humanity. He had to struggle in his work. He admired
-many artists who at the time weren't in favour or considered to be
good. He liked many illustrators from the illustrated London Times -
they were probably the only good creative thing that came out of Britain at the time.
I'm-writing a novel called Sex Crimes of the Future it's about me
and Tracey and carries on from My Fault, which is now out of print.
Just published is I'd rather: You'd Lied, poems 1980-1998, selected
from over thirty collections; mostly now out of print. My latest
poetry collection is Chatham Town Welcomes Desperate Men - a poetry collection to be published by X-Ray books in San Francisco. There is also a double blues LP called Crimes Against Music - that stuff was recorded on a half track, it' s just guitar and vocals - and a triple LP called Elementary Headcotes, and Here Comes Cessation. The latest Headcotes album is I Am the Object of Your Desire. Then there is a Billy Childish and Holly Golightly LP named In Blood.
I also have a wood-cut exhibition opening in Paris in November, and a one-man show in Cologne and on the 4th December I have a one man painting show at the Metropole Art Centre in Folkestone.
BUTTERFLY
Do you think there are any signs which fortell an imminent collapse of the current art establishment?
BILLY CHILDISH
There will be a paradigm shift: art will change, and soon. Contemporary art - rather than leading public opinion - is trailing behind what most people are thinking. And that's wrong, art is normally ahead of current thought.
I understand that people want sensation, a bit of news to read over their Cornflakes and toast, I understand that people might enjoy a touch of Saatchi's New Romantics with their morning tea -
or whatever they're called - but not for serious, it can't be serious for God's sake, I think mainstream artists are short changing themselves, I think that to treat people decently is very important, and that the public feel conned with a lot of contemporary art they see.
BUTTERFLY
But what if some of these New Neurotic Realists are actually neurotic? Doesn't that make their work "real" and in some way
respectable?
BILLY CHILDISH
Yes, I' d agree if they were neurotic, and also if I knew anything about it. But it's more about having the guts to do it with paint, not with ready-mades. We all need the courage to make bad work, Edward Munch was a very clever man, he could have opted for clever ideas, but he decided to paint. Munch painted himself and his sickbed, which is infinitely braver than just showing his crappy old bed from IKEA. The guy didn't fall for his own cleverness. Did you know that you can go see the bed which Van Gogh died in? I mean, it's just the same as any other fucking bed they made at the time. Pathetic.
You can come around to my old air-raid shelter if you like, mine and Tracey's bed is still rotting away there, you can have it for fuck - all, or £20,000.
BUTTERFLY
Do you clip or bite your nails?
BILLY CHILDISH
I'm not so good at biting nails since I had my lower incisors removed. My lower teeth are now all gold, and not so sharp. So I have to use clippers.
BUTTERFLY
Have you ever done carpentry?
BILLY CHILDISH
No. Odd jobs are false economy.
BUTTERFLY
What's your favourite shape?
BILLY CHILDISH
Well, all colours have a shape, and my colour is red which, as Tony Hancock once said, is "a little round circle with the skeleton of a sardine hanging of it".
BUTTERFLY
Tea or coffee?
BILLY CHILDISH
Hot water please!
www.stuckism.com
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