We invented and we are constantly developing our own visual language. We want the most accessible modern form with which to create the most modern speaking visual pictures of our time. The art material must be subservient to the meaning and the purpose of the picture. Our reason for making pictures is to change people and not to congratulate them on being how they are. - From 'What Our Art Means', Gilbert ... George, 1986.
Few visual artists are as vitally relevant to these confused times as Gilbert ... George. Since the late '60s, they have single-handedly captured the imaginations of the public worldwide to a far more compelling effect than any other artist alive. As exponents, developers and innovators of photographically based art, they are, as writer David Sylvester has remarked, perhaps second only to Andy Warhol.
If Andy Warhol's major artistic achievement was to boldly display that art was not confined to the gallery, but could be found inside every kitchen cupboard in the world then Gilbert and George have fully expounded the art inherent in every single drop of blood, every sliver of urine and piece of faeces found within every single human being.
As early as 1969 they had a dream: "We began to dream of a world of beauty and happiness, of great riches and pastures new, of joy, and the laughter of children, and sweets, of the music of colour and the sweetness of shape, a world of feeling and meaning. A newer, better world, a world of delicious disasters, of heartening sorrow and of loathing and dread. A world complete, all the world an art gallery." (G...G, 1969, and also the inscription used to welcome the viewer to the Ormeau Baths Gallery)
The art world once jibed that their work was simplistic 'folk art' for the masses, which in so being lost its mysterious currency and cutting edgeness. The duo struck back: "The expertise that the profession has, knowing when a piece of art is fake, or early That or late This - they use that to abuse other people. They think that they are making the subject elaborate and sophisticated, when in fact they simplify and make it bloody boring. We're not doing simple pictures for lower class idiots, as the professionals think, we're making pictures that are so complicated that they can be used by people."
October 1999 and the first exhibition fully devoted to the work of Gilbert ... George on this island opens in the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast. The controversy that they have courted internationally is not far away.
On the evening of the Recent Pictures launch, a small gaggle of protesters from the Free Presbyterian Church gathered outside to voice their objections to what they and their Church perceive to be immoral crudity and smut. The number of protesters numbered no more than ten, contrary to sensationalist reports of vast numbers in the Belfast Newsletter. Also, in very un-Presbyterian manner, the protesters were very quiet, with no brim and firestone loudspeaker pronouncements, but more polite Father Ted 'Down with this Sort of Thing!' style placards.
The quiet protest certainly didn't stop the show, and as part of the Belfast Festival at Queen's activities, Gilbert ... George, live and in the flesh, hosted an 'Afternoon Tea' session to meet the public. Not for them the stuffiness, exclusivity and pretentiousness that usually marks these occasions.
"All the artists of this century were famous for loving art, for producing pictures and for having exhibitions.We want to be different from that, in that our love is not for art but for the viewer of our pictures. We love every single viewer."
With this self-proclaimed manifesto they cordially listened and answered any queries the bemused yet enthralled crowd wished to voice.
Recent Pictures is a personal selection by Gilbert ... George of work from The Naked Shit Pictures, The Fundamental Pictures and New Testament Pictures. You could call it a G...G Greatest Hits of the 90s if you like, although the common thread here is how they deal with the 'fundamentals' of human existence - blood, sweat, tears, urine, faeces and semen. Pretty much every considered taboo is confronted head on through their stunning imagery. But common sense is naggingly demanding: why shit, piss, spunk and blood?
George: "Our pictures show the beauty that lies within all of us."
Gilbert: "Yes. For example there is an amazingly complete landscape in a single drop of piss."
George: "When we began filming the South Bank Show documentary we had just begun work on The Fundamental Pictures. The director would look at the designs on the wall, and chuckle away to himself saying, "you must find all this tremendous fun! Working with shit and piss!" We'd reply that on the contrary we often found it to be incredibly hard, because it can be very hard to emotionally and psychologically deal with shit and piss and blood.
Then his poor sister contracted leukaemia, and he realised that her entire life would depend on all the elements we were dealing with. He began to view our work completely differently, and realise how these things are so very important to us all. His sister died and he touchingly dedicated the film to her memory."
Such raw honesty and compassion is what separates G...G from your usually gaggle of black-clad pretenders. Do Gilbert ... George see themselves in fitting into the art establishment in any way?
George: "No. We are outsiders. The young artists are the establishment. We have never been asked for tea at Downing Street, all the young artists go for tea at Downing Street. However since we started we think it is such a great thing that people have become more aware of art. In 1970, if you asked someone to name a living artist they couldn't. Now they could name five or six. It is a good thing that a society at large recognises more than just its killers, sportsmen or ballerinas."
So, if they are not part of the establishment, do they have any affinity or common ground with any particular artistic tradition?
Gilbert: "Yes. The tradition of extremes."
Gilbert ... George also heavily appropriate stark religious imagery in displaced and thought-provoking situations, such as 'Naked Body' (1991) which fuses a man displaying his rear end with both artists in their underpants inside a cemetery, with a crucifix and Celtic cross featured prominently in bright lurid pinks, purples and yellows.
"Many artists, most famously Picasso, would completely leave out religion and proclaim themselves to be atheists," adds George. "We think that this is far too cold and cruel a division for art to make. We are drawn to the suffering man throughout history. You might find it surprising but we have always got on incredibly well with clergymen, or at least up to now! They realise that there is a lot of shit and piss and the Bible, and enjoy confronting our work."
Such an open-minded attitude was not forthcoming from the arty-farty set when Gilbert ... George announced that one of their London exhibitions would be entitled the The Naked Shit Pictures.
"There was a considerable number of sponsors involved in the show," explains George. "And every single one pulled out when they found out what we were going to call it. Even the London Arts Board, who are statutory obliged to assist every single show in this particular gallery, pulled out, which was actually illegal. We just pressed on ourselves and everything worked out fine. We placed our own adverts in Time Out every week. Each advert would feature a close up detail of one of the pictures and our naked bodies. There were two complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority, one based on the language used in the advert, The Naked Shit Pictures, and the other because the ad featured two naked men. The Advertising Standards Authority ruled both complaints out, one because there is a tradition of nakedness and nudity in fine art. The other because the title, The Naked Shit Pictures, was deemed "a true and accurate description of the particular exhibition in question."
Since the art is so vibrant, confrontational and lively, one would imagine that you would be inundated with design requests. "Oh indeed we are! But we have never done advertising or marketing campaigns," says Gilbert. "The Pet Shop Boys have asked us loads of times to work with them."
Earlier George told a bizarre little anecdote concerning advertising.
"The only advertisement we were involved proved to be a little bizarre. We did an advert to help the campaign for the cancellation of Third world debts, which used one of The Naked Shit Pictures. In the television ad, Ken Livingstone walks in and makes this little speech; "Who would have ever thought that there are more vitamins and proteins in a single turd than the nutritive requirements that it takes to keep a Third World child alive for a week!"
The fact that Gilbert ... George are invited to publicly support such campaigns is indicative of a status and estemm acquired through their wildly direct and honest work. As we adjourned for 'Afternoon Tea with Gilbert ... George', the artists stayed on to talk to the public about their work and sign prints and programmes.
It is the closest to fan devotion you'll find amongst visual artists, and it is nigh on impossible to name another artist who would provoke such an enthusiastic response amongst viewers and audiences alive today. As I'm taking a last glance around the gallery before hopping on the homeward bound train, I notice Gilbert in the distance taking a shot of me standing wide-eyed in the midst of their work. God only knows where that might end up! This little incident conclusively proves that they most certainly do love their viewers, as the declaration they wrote and signed for The Recent Pictures proclaims:
"We Gilbert ... George, are delighted to be here in Belfast. We have never seen so many good-looking people before. We offer these pictures as visual love letters to you the viewer. We hereby declare that Belfast is our favourite city!
With lots of love,
Gilbert ... George."
I hereby declare that Gilbert ... George are Belfast's favourite artists. Respect due. n
* 'Recent Pictures' runs in the Ormeau Baths Gallery, 18a Ormeau Avenue, Belfast until January 15th 2000.