Conversations with Artists A lot of artists Limit themselves to business as usual. 'm not sure I have a reqular style. I'm often told that my work incorporates a lot of decoration - if so, that’s not conscious, as T always like to start from zero with my paintings, to create something completely different. But I do have to work within certain limits, and the most important of those is that we live in the age of reproduction. All sorts of people know my art from magazines, catalogues or TV. That's all right with me because I don't want them to go to a gallery. But one of the consequences is that I want to create works that have nearly as strong an impact in a photograph ora video as in real life. You see, I want my work to have street crecibility, to speak cirecily to people, so that it doesn’t need the help of the white boxes ~ the muscuns or galleries ~ to be appreciated. EMP nescrtcd The oreatest influence on my way of thinking as a painter came when 1 took part in a famous exhibition ‘alled Freeze’ when I wes a student at college. That college was a dream for creative people: it was the only place in the art world that didn’t stipulate which medium you had to work in, All the other schools divided you into categories, such as sculpture and painting. Art practice isn’t confined by these old barriers and techniques any more. I dont think ‘Freeze’ was ground-breaking in terms of the actual work, but there was a massive energy around it. We Weren't tiying to attract the attention of the galleries ~ it was more a case of ‘we con't need them. we can do it anyway, CEE 1 didn’t actually study art at college: 1 qualified in electronics: I qualified at an evening class, I never ‘enjoyed school, nor work, which I have always tried to avoid, without success, In fact, I found my path in art 2 bit late ~ only eight years ago. For me, art is just 2 Job like any other that can be learned while you do When I was small, I always thought I wouldn't want: to do ary work, and that art should be like that. But now Tin really working. I don't jiave a minute, what with galleries, gallery owners and interviews in different places. I consider the geography of towns as a kind of library which you use for your own needs; you go where you think you can Feel good for a while. I go around different towns so as to meet new people breathe new air and get new ideas. Tm very flexible —T paint, create Logos, design furniture and products and write comics; but iF pushed, Talways say that I daw. Tlustrators and cartoonists are the only ones who have accepted me. Grephic designers say to me: ‘What are you doing? Youre not a raph designer, are you a painter” The painters say: ‘Why don't you design furniture? Your furniture is really nice’ And the funiture designers say: You should be doing comic books, that’s your business! 1 think my érowings are awful, but I have to say other artists have used my work to develop their own, Hind you. they haven't copied any more than T have. TAL keep 07 copying, allowing myself to be influenced by thousands of authors and images. It's very positive when youre creating things. You can never stat from square one, Poe ro My work is all about building art into daily life. 1 would have a much more comfortable life # I was a “fine ert artist sitting in a studio in the countryside. But I wanted to be involved in builcing in the city: I wanted to contribute to daily life, with all its idiosyncrasies and difficulties. You see, Thad a more practical education than most, learning building construction at technical high school, and went on to study art and architecture in Vienna in an environment of artists, stage desioners, painters and sculptors. I was constantly moving between the fine arts and architecture ~ today you call it ‘crossover, and actually ‘the demarcation is now less rigid. Tye worked for the advertising industry, For example, superimposing advertising images onto phatographs of butings. Indeee, in whatever I do J introduce a foreign element into a given situation, and, by transformation of scale and meaning, it makes another, very clear statement. I need to make sure thet it’s @ statement which is getting through to people. F_ Billy Matuka Tm always told 1 favour writing in my art, rather than ‘images. In any painting there is something which says: “Look at me, please! So I said to myself: Instead of. painting the painting, Tm going to write “Look at me, please.” The painting is only a pretext to say something, so I might as well say it simply, with words ‘on the painting. Also, I wanted to establish my own, territory, after an initial period of not really knowing where I was going. Writing went well with my desire to tell the truth. It’s been said that artis a lie, but you have to find the truth somenhere! TEST 2, PAPER 1 37]