Pig Magazine - October 2005

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

- You were born in 1980 and in your artworks there are a lot of references to that decade, just like you were a predestinate...what are your deepest memories of your 0 - 10 years?

I remember a small red ghetto blaster by my bed; it played the music charts, Cyndi Lauper and Tiffany. I remember Madonna singing 'Holiday' on Top of the pops (a uk TV show) and I remember thinking that the world wouldn't feel the same again. I remember images of starving Africans from Live Aid; I remember the Berlin wall coming down, Boy George being arrested as a Junkie, and I remember Warhol dying. I remember enjoying being alone and dropping insects down the back of my fabulous sister. Also, listened to Springsteen's 'Born in the USA' on a giant red Walkman in the school playground.

- What about your post Momart fire "Burn Baby Burn" and "RIP YBA" ? Could you tell us the whole story?

There was a warehouse in East London where some incredible artworks were stored; some were by the YBA's, people like Chris Ofili, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin. The collector Charles Saatchi kept them there. One night there was a big fire in the warehouse and it burned to the ground. I was shocked and sad; because when I was a kid I idolized those artists so much. When I was about 17 they changed the way I thought about art, before that it felt like I was staring at my feet the whole time. If it weren't for that experience I wouldn't be here.

So... we were talking with some art collectors who were friends of mine and they suggested I paint with the ashes from the fire. As it happened, Uri Geller went down to the site of the blaze, and he found workmen clearing all the rubbish into big trucks. He asked if he may have some of the pieces, the guy in charge recognized Uri of course, and pointed him to some recognizable pieces. So anyway, Uri gave what he found to me, including a piece that I think was part of Tracy Emin's tent.

I put the pieces in 8 plastic boxes and decorated them with pink paint, collage and glitter. I was listening to a Biggie track as I worked and he said 'Burn baby burn...' so I wrote it on a box. Then all the press got silly about the whole thing, and didn't really understand why I did it. I got back from a collectors home in Italy to a media circus of TV interviews, newspapers and photos. The critics gave me a serious bashing, and a posh gallery who I was working on a show with cancelled it instantly.

I made what I made because I was so sad and so moved and I just had to do something. I won't shy away from doing what I feel just because it's controversial. I see it as my job to find things and put them back together in new orders, to make new things. We got offered $1million for the piece from a Japanese corporation, but I want to see it in a museum, I don't want to sell it because it doesn't feel like it's mine. It's more like I've been given the job of looking after it for a while. Some weird thing happened and I ended up with bits of things that had changed my life a decade earlier.

- And how come your action at the London¹s Saatchi gallery? What happened?

Saatchi has such an enormous amount of power in the art world, he has a huge amount of influence on taste. He built up British art so much and made the careers of so many fantastic artists. Lately he has been selling off these works, by people like Damien for huge amounts of money and focusing on buying up Polish and German works. To me it was like he was turning his back on the very people who had made his name in the Art World. So when Charles opened his exhibition 'The Triumph of Painting part 2' and it contained no British art for the first time in 10 years, I was so angry. I quickly made a canvas, quite a big one, it said 'British Painting Still Rocks' and the day the show opened to the public, I went down first thing in the morning. I walked straight past the security and I stuck it on the wall. On the back I wrote 'to Charles, with all my love, Stuart xxx'. There are so many amazing artists here in London; it's such an inspiring place to be. If he's not seeing that, he must be blind. I don't care what people say, I won't sit down and I won't be quiet.

- The artist and the magician...how did you meet Uri Geller?

Well, first Uri isn't a magician, he's a paranormalist and his powers are genuinely very, very strange. Uri had made some incredible ceramics, and I saw them and suggested that we do a swap, a couple of his plates for a painting. Uri studied with Dali for a couple of years and knew Warhol in NYC, I think if he didn't have the powers he would have been an artist. Anyway we swapped works and became very close friends.

- Where is the "Post Pop Paradise"??

Post Pop Paradise is an exhibition I am making in London, it's in an old abandoned warehouse in the East End. I have been offered many shows with cleaner, whiter galleries out West but I believe in making my own projects and often a galleries agenda is more focused on making money than creating a resonance with the works. Although it's crazy I am managing the whole project myself. The PR, graphics, invites, renovation of the space. Everything! It's the only way to keep the vision clear. All the things I do are artworks, an event is also an artwork to me.

- Why do you use Glitter?

I love glitter so much. It reminds me of David Bowie, it reminds me of being a child. When I was 8 my parents painted my face like Bowie, with a big lightening flash. Glitter also makes the painting interactive; it brings it right into the moment because it plays with the light. The viewer can change the way it glistens by moving their head. It makes it intimate. I collect many glitters from all over the world, sometimes I use diamond dust, and sometimes I use the most synthetic plastic glitter I can get. I have also made my own glitters from turning CD's into holographic powders.

- Your fav songs?

All my work is based on songs; each starts out as a favorite track. I go through phases of liking different things. But some songs will stay with me for the rest of my life. Heartbeats by the Knife, Money changes everything by Lauper, Lipstick Vogue by Elvis Costello, I think we're alone now by Tiffany. My music taste goes from Prokofiev to the Wu Tang Clan. I can't live without it and I get so obsessed that I will put a new track on loop for days even through the night, and then suddenly I will ignore the song for years. When the music is on, my life feels like it's a movie.

- Do you know who Klaus Nomi was?

Yes, but I only found out quite recently when I opened a magazine. At first I thought he was copying me! He's great... New York, the 80s Ahhhhh lovely isn't it? They just don't make people like that anymore do they?

- You've a Factory...do you believe in collaborative projects?

I do love to collaborate, I only have two pairs of hands and so many hours in the day, so to do everything I want I need to involve others. I like to collaborate with people that inspire me. I just finished a film with Leslie Deere and some clothes with Ju$t Another Rich kid. There are loads of projects like that in the pipeline; if I had more time I would do more. It's a case of balancing my own personal work with the community aspect of being an artist. Working with others forces me to forget my ego for a while, when I am working on my own projects I like to be in control, However I have to admit that there are people who are much better at doing things than me and it's easier to just let them do it.

GETTING INSIDE YOU

- Once you were Nancyboy, now you are Stuart Semple... did this mutation hurt you? What happened? Molecular misunderstanding?

It's a weird thing, but one morning I woke up and I just felt like I had grown up. It hit me that I wasn't a kid anymore and I wanted to make something a bit different. All the phobias and fears I had when I was Nancyboy had been cured and I no longer needed my paintings to keep me together emotionally. So I changed my name I became someone else, maybe I became the real me again. It was as easy as changing your hairstyle or eye make-up.

- You stated that you're obsessed with squares, referring to canvases...but does your life have any square? AKA: what are the things you don't want to be in your life or that you can't have in your life? What's your frame??

Oh yes. Haaa haaa... That's funny! I am very particular about everything, I am methodical and specific, so there are so many rules I have about what I let in. I'm very strict on that. The thing I have most control over is the visual things I surround myself with, I have a very focused agenda on only letting the very best images into my reality. I am a very open and accepting person, which means I let people into my life too easily and it's sometimes the case that I give them too much room. Because I believe so deeply in sharing, I find it impossible to say no. That has become a bit of a problem quite a few times. At school if you are boring or trying hard they call you a square when they tease you. I try to make squares cool.

- Behind your artwork usually there are white walls and a nail, what's behind you?

There's a whole history of artists behind me. A hardrive with tens of thousands of songs. A huge number of books, memories of what people have said to me. But most of all what is behind me is my aspirations. With my new work I am trying to work out what those desires are and how they got here. I think we are all driven by desire. Fear used to be behind me, now there's a certain isolation and loneliness. I actually like those feelings.

- Do you want to be an icon, just like the images you use in your canvas?

Being an icon is the easiest way to hide yourself within who you are. I want to be invisible.

- Do you like eating food?

When I was 19 I officially died from a peanut allergy. It was the full out of body experience, white light, everything. I thought I was gone for good! However, they rescued me, and I lived. It left me with a very real fear of swallowing. I found it very distressing to eat. I am cured of that now, and I love my food! Anyone for... Cake? yummmmm...

- What about this violent years we live in?

I don't think they are any more violent than any other times really. Although some kids on the train threw water over me because they were scared of my make up. The world wars, Napoleon, The dark Ages, now that was bad! It's life. Life is violent. Violence makes us know we're here. I think what's worse about the times we live in is the fear, the fear of dying, of being hurt, of losing control.

- Do you think art can help in changing things?

It would be lovely to say that art can change the world. Personally I don't think it can. I mean the live 8 thing was a good example, it got close. Art can make a point and it can share an idea. It can't change the world but through changing the way we think about things it can change us, on a personal level. I think that's so much more powerful. I hate it when things change though, you have to think about them all over again and that's so annoying when you've already made up your mind.

- What kind of people do you let to get inside of you?

Different bits of me are reserved for different people. I like to keep my identity as fluid as possible with that. My greatest fear is that one day all these people will sit down and talk to one another and realize how boring I am.
- Your style is strongly British but you define yourself like the new Napoleon in rags... British history has a lack of dandy and genius Conquerors? Would you rather been born in a different nation?

I should have been born in New York and I should have been there in the 80s. I am where I am and London is cool for now. The thing about Britain is that it is so traditional; they would hate to admit it. It's easy to annoy them here, which is why I love it. If you want to subvert something why not start with the most stuck up country on Earth!