Gilbert & George’s London Odyssey
By Oskar Oprey
Gilbert and George are busy in the studio, working on a new set of pictures. I asked the two artists—who are both now in their early eighties and have spent almost six decades working together—a few probing questions. Firstly, might they give us a clue about these upcoming works? “Our new pictures, the ‘SCREW PICTURES’,” they explained, “are about the joys and difficulties faced daily by us and the rest of you. They include images of screws, nuts, bolts, twigs, and us. We’ll leave everything else to your imagination…”
I was glad to hear that we’ll soon be treated to another dose of Gilbert and George’s “shitty naked human world” (from a 1994 series), but disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to visit their east London house for a coffee. (They famously do not cook at home, their kitchen stocked only with the means of making a cup of instant Nescafé.) As our interview was conducted elsewhere, I decided to spend an afternoon loitering around their neighbourhood instead. The artists have lived and worked in the same Spitalfields abode—a sprawling Huguenot townhouse—since the late 1960s. Their early artworks were signed off with the slogan “Art for All”, followed by the address and phone number, “12 Fournier St, London E.1 Tel 247 0161”. In a 2006 documentary for BBC’s Imagine, George pointed out that “it’s still the same number to this day”, as if daring the viewers to pick up the phone and give them a bell.
On the trail of Gilbert and George, I started my adventure with a slap-up lunch at Sizzles, an old-fashioned caff where the pair are known to pick up breakfast. My fry-up was delicious, and the cafe is a welcome throwback to the old East End, before it became gentrified. Gilbert Prousch (born 1943) and George Passmore (born 1942) set up home here in the late 60s, shortly after meeting as students at Saint Martin’s School of Art. Back then, this poverty-stricken postcode was still strewn with cabbage leaves from the old Spitalfields Market, along with Blitz-era bombsites yet to be redeveloped. Throughout these ruins, you’d often find a gang of meth drinkers huddled around a bonfire. The homeless are still a familiar presence in Spitalfields, and have been a recurring subject in Gilbert and George’s art throughout the years: The Alcoholic (1978) shows the two artists gazing down on a sleeping vagrant like a pair of solemn guardian angels.
In the duo’s earlier breakout piece, The Singing Sculpture (1969), they took on the persona of the down-and-out, performing a rendition of an old depression-era music hall song by Flanagan and Allen called Underneath the Arches. With their faces painted bronze, they would mount a small makeshift stage and sing along to the record nonstop for hours on end. The performance shot them to art-world stardom, with shows at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York, and a museum tour of Australia.
