the way I see it: Stanley Donwood
artist tackles ten existential questions
// New Statesman, 7 June 2007
:: english original
:: russian translation
Donwood is best known for his work on Radiohead album covers and posters. His new solo exhibition, «If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now», opens at the Lazarides Gallery, London W1, on 14 June.
__________
— Does art make a difference?
Rarely. If it does, it’s usually pretty short-term, like the graphics produced during the events in Paris and elsewhere at the end of the 1960s. It could be argued that the party-political campaign produced by the Saatchi brothers in the run-up to the 1979 election made a difference. But overall? I don’t think so. Which is, I admit, pretty depressing.
— Should politics and art mix?
Of course. The idea of the “artist” as some special creature who exists somewhere above real life is complete bollocks. Everything is political, and increasingly so. Unfortunately.
— Is your work for the many or for the few?
Depends on your perspective. Globally, the few. In the affluent, CD-buying west, the many.
— If you were world leader, what would be your first law?
All world leaders should give away everything they have and exist on the charity of others. And all meetings should be conducted in the nude.
— Who would be your top advisers?
I’m still grappling with the idea of being a world leader. I don’t know. I’d put an advert in the window of the newsagent.
— What, if anything, would you censor?
Violence.
— If you had to banish one public figure, who would it be?
Myself. If I was a world leader.
— What are the rules that you live by?
Do as you would be done by. Be nice to other people.
— Do you love your country?
I don’t give a fuck about it. Patriotism being the last refuge of the scoundrel, and all that.
— Are we all doomed?
Of course we are. We’ve fucked up the climate, polluted the waters, poisoned the land, based our entire culture on a non-renewable resource, practically made a habit out of warfare and genocide, based our economic system on a childish fallacy, and invented some of the most stupid weapons imaginable. We’re not just doomed – nothing will ever get better.
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