Gilbert and George in Conversation with Tim Marlow

Last night, Beth and I went to see Gilbert and George in conversation, two amazing artists who met at Central Saint Martins School of Art and have been pioneers in the art world for forty years since, still going strong in their seventies. Beth was responsible for the conjuring up of tickets, as she has a wonderful way with finding events like this. The whole event was one that seemed incredibly surreal, held at The White Cube, which is indeed a wonderfully pristine white cube, we were first met by two security guards who questioned our presence (very politely) and then nodded and smiled when we said we were there for the conversation, making us feel like princesses. It was then that the small group of students and other adults there were herded into a small room, with limited number of chairs, and I found myself directed to a reserved seat! Lucky me. It must have been fate...

Once the conversation started, I fell absolutely in love. One of the first things Gilbert (in the darker green suit) said, was that he thought meeting George was fate, that "an extraordinary relationship started" and he loved "thinking, being alive" a quote that resonated with their already captivated audience.

Gilbert, from the country in north Italy, studied art there until moving to London; George, from Devon, first studied art at Oxford and discovered Saint Martin's due to bumping into one of his tutors while in London who took him there and got him a place, which he said was "luck, amazing chance, extraordinary." Gilbert and George immediately bonded and worked together, agreeing on a statement of "Art for All". Once leaving Saint Martin's they contacted the late Anthony Caro and met him in a pub to which he politely listened to their ideas. When finished, Caro said "I hope very much that you don't succeed, but I think you might", he ended up being one of their mentors. 

Marlow, an art historian, asked their thoughts on whether or not they are a collaboration which is what they are so often called. However, George said it was "never even something to do with collaboration, we never really like that term." They have a rather peculiar way of living, having lived and worked on the same street in East London for four decades; they don't have a kitchen, instead they go out to eat dinner at the same place every night and eat the same meal for months until they tire of it and pick a new one. This is all due to what George describes as "the more organised and regimented the studio and our lives, the more complex the idea can be in our heads" 

Generally, Gilbert and George are very secluded from the outside world, they keep to a strict routine which requires a lot of discipline, constantly working. They purposely keep themselves out of the art world, avoiding dinner parties and galleries so as not to be influenced by anything other than their own minds and to continue getting their messages across in their art, as George says "nothing matters but the pictures that we're creating." And, much to the audience's amusement, Gilbert says their motto is to

 "never go to other people's houses." 

When asked whether they argue at all, George smiled and said they call that "the great heterosexual question" This goes along with their belief of secluding themselves, they don't want to be affected by the constant fighting and hatred of the world and instead want to "ban religion and decriminalise sex", claiming religion creates more problems than it is worth, giving an example about how some women are being castrated for the cause of religion. 

(apologies for bad quality)

Almost identically dressed right down to an identical pen in their pocket, the only difference being the shade of their suits and different shoes, Marlow asks about their attire, calling it an "antique bohemian stance". George explained that they "believe it is important to be well behaved and well dressed" and that they don't "want to be the artist the mother ashamed of".

The last question was "What advice do you give to young artists of today?", to which they replied:

 "think 'What do I want to say to the world today' and fuck the teachers".

Ruby