God Is Pissing From A Great Height

Images copyright of the artist. Images courtesy of the Wilkinson Gallery, London

Photo by Jonnie Craig

Vice: Did you move to Cornwall to be a part of its art scene?

Ged Quinn:

Light pollution?

How did you find your style?

You spend a year on each painting?

That’s still a lot of time. What motivates you to finish them?

Is there a story behind your paintings?

Finnegans Wake

Do you study the old masters in order to paint like this?

So you use actual paintings, but give them a twist?

The Anxious Attempt of Art to Mourn the Silence of Melancholy Over Everything, 2010, oil on canvas, 61.5 x 49.5 cm.

Does it annoy you when people try to interpret your work?

OK then, while we’re at it, is that God pissing in a toilet from the sky in The Great Art of Light and Shadow painting?

laughs

What about the crack pipe?

You’ve also made a portrait series, painting people like Hitler with tits and flying cock-clouds in the background.

I guess it works. I laughed when looking at some of them because they’re so absurdly disarming.

Is it a big taboo to paint Hitler and swastikas?

The Great Art of Light and Shadow, 2007, oil on canvas, 183 x 234 cm.

True. It’s better to discuss these things, and your work is obviously not celebratory of Nazism. Have you ever had any bad reactions, though?

You also played in some 80s new-wave bands when you lived in Liverpool.

Was that when you started Lotus Eaters and Wild Swans?

Top of the Pops

That’s a nice picture of Varg Vikernes on your working table. Have you heard any of Burzum’s music?

Yes. He killed the guitarist in his former band, Mayhem.

Well, they seem pretty harmless to me, starting fashion labels and whatnot. What about this skull, are you going to use it?

Depressing. But didn’t that Chinese artist who ate a baby get away with it?

Crack Pipe, 2007, oil on canvas, 25.5 x 41 cm.

The Exiled Forever Coming in to Land, 2010, oil on canvas, 200 x 320 cm.

Melancholia, 2010, oil on canvas, 61.5 x 49.5 cm..

Country Girl, 2010, oil on canvas, 61.5 x 49.5 cm.

My Lunch is a Philosopher, 2004/5, oil on linen, 31 x 46 cm.