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 billy childish on his homage to van gogh
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Billy Childish on why he’s repainted Van Gogh at London’s Aquarium Gallery. In December 2003, the BBC asked me to speak on a programme about Vincent’s Sunflowers painting, which I happily did. During the filming I realised that I should make a homage to the man who inspired me to become an artist when I was a kid, Vincent van Gogh. In the past it was seen as valid, even essential, to copy the masters and thereby learn. Current thinking is that this is now somehow outdated, naff and unoriginal. I challenge this notion. Too my mind it does a chap, or lass, good to try walking about in someone else’s skin for an hour or two. It brings us closer to the artist we are honouring, closer to ourselves and thereby closer to God. Van Gogh copied Millet, Delacroix and Rembrandt. The torch is there, you just have to have the guts to pick it up and be labelled a prick in the process. So I thought I’d give it a go. People would do better with a little more humility, a little less shopping and a little less intoxication with novelty. My work is about not hiding and trying to be as open and honest as I can, thereby being of use to myself and others. Rather than hiding my tracks and being clever and ironic, I get on the wrong end of the see-saw where I can feel at home with my dead heroes of the past - those others who were also happy to be labelled as idiots. I painted these pictures in January and February 2004. Van Gogh is a very pernickety painter - he paints swirls very carefully, whereas I let the paint do the work. Munch picked up the same thing from Van Gogh. If you really travel into another artist’s work you actually see the pictures rather than merely look at them. To begin to understand anything you have to take the risk of failing, being laughed at and not hiding behind irony.  Flowering Plum Tree (After Hiroshige) & Sunflowers With Revolver (details) Our education system gives students a “simulated experience of thinking” yet still manages to render them ignorant because of its phoney notions of what constitutes originality, as well as its institutionally ingrained fear of life and genuine creativity. To be original you first have to stop trying to be original. Next, you have to get out of the way so that something of God might just be able to struggle past your fat, bloated ego. Authenticity is of far more worth than originality. In truth, originality only has a chance if you are first authentic. Following your star - what is in your heart - is the long way round. It is often lonely, but to gain maturity you have to give up your need to be petted and congratulated at every turn, have a bit of guts and not surrender to instant gratification and the money men. In short, hand the loaded revolver to the enemy. Let the tossers have all the prizes, but don’t give the devil your soul.
Billy Childish
Handing The Loaded Revolver To The Enemy: A Homage To Vincent Van Gogh is at The Aquarium Gallery, 10 Woburn Walk, London, until 31 July 04.
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 useful linkswww.aquariumgallery.co.uk www.theebillychildish.com www.billychildish.com
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