Agreement Is Not What We Look For

Artwork courtesy of White Cube

Vice: Hello Cerith. Where are you at the moment?

Cerith Wyn Evans:

How long have you been there for?

Good. I hate golf. What are you working on at the moment?

How much do you need?

It’s a beautiful idea.

I’ll check my balance and get back to you. So you started out making short films, right? How did that happen?

La Part Maudite by Georges Bataille (1949), 2006, mixed media, dimensions variable. Photo by Stephen White

Did you have a thirst for knowledge?

What equipment do you use?

Do you think people are spoilt now with all the technology?

What’s your favourite medium then?

TIX3, 1994, neon, 14 x 34 x 2 cm. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy Modern Collections.

What about music and film as a medium?

How was that?

What do you like about collaboration?

Why do you keep going back to working with musicians?

You once said, “I hate the idea of being accessible.”

How so?

C=O=N=S=T=E=L=L=A=T=I=O=N (I Call Your Image to Mind), 2010, mixed media, dimensions variable. Photos by Todd-White Art Photography

It feels as if, with every passing second, the information being given out in the world is becoming more and more simplified and trite.

I remember the first time we met, you told me you always got it cut at Vidal Sassoon.

cut

set

IMAGE (Rabbit’s Moon) by Raymond Williams, 2004, mixed media, dimensions variable. Photo by Andy Keate

At this point in the interview the brand new digital dictaphone that was purchased the day before the interview inexplicably stopped recording. While the machine was broken, Cerith talked about social identity and how that was reflected in art and said some wonderfully profound things that ended with a quote from an episode of

.

Horrified by the technological breakdown, we called him back and told him what had happened and asked for more of his time. This is what happened.

So yeah, the machine broke and we lost about 20 minutes. Can you say that stuff about social identity and The Simpsons again?

Like how when something got scratched, you just forgot about it, Sellotaped over it and started again, and the beauty of it was that the mistake added to the outcome.

OK, let’s do that. But can we start at the Simpsons line, which was the last thing you said before it broke, please?

sighs

Ha ha.

Glee

Glee

Vice

Glee

Glee

Glee