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Gilbert & George for AnOther Magazine A/W16 Photography by Alasdair McLellan

The World of Gilbert & George

As a new exhibition of their work opens at White Cube Bermondsey, we revisit Jo-Ann Furniss' profile of the duo from AnOther Magazine A/W16

Pb Image Gilbert & George for AnOther Magazine A/W16 Photography by Alasdair McLellan

"We take a new, long-awaited artwork chosen The Fuckosophy," says George with some glee.

"The Fuckosophy!" exclaims Gilbert, laughing.

"It'southward pushing iv,000 lines," says George. "We read out an extract in Paris."

"2 pages," says Gilbert. "It was quite exciting. Everybody was sitting."

George: "All smoking!"
Gilbert: "Everybody was sitting, so we stood up..."
George: "Which alarmed everyone. They don't even sit up!"
Gilbert: "We read for eight minutes, The Fuckosophy."
George: "The first few minutes they giggled a bit. Then they got quiet. And so some of them got very alarmed."
Gilbert: "Some of the French artists got very excited. Totally excited by it!"
George: "Nobody actually reads philosophy. At that place is no philosopher in the village, like a village store or a hamlet pub or a village church. So nosotros decided to create a philosophy that actually extends to every moment of life that you might hope or fear for; dying, living, getting married, whatever happens in life, we are trying to cover it. At that place are 3,589 lines so far."

The artists so launch into an impromptu performance of an excerpt from The Fuckosophy, taking it in turns to read out each line.

George: "Got fucked and fucked."
Gilbert: "Fuckridge."
George: "They're fuckers."
Gilbert: "Fucking Sussex."
George: "Regimental fucking."
Gilbert: "Fucking chapel."
George: "Wanker fucker."
Gilbert: "Fucker'south manor."
George: "Don't fuck up."
Gilbert: "Fucker'southward wharf."
George: "Onward Christian fuckers."
Gilbert: "Fuck the checkpoint."
George: "Really cute fucker."
Gilbert: "Fucker's drift."
George: "Unpleasant fucking."
Gilbert: "Fucking descent."
George: "The fuck diaries."
Gilbert: "Fucker's Wapping."
George: "Cookie fucker."
Gilbert: "Fucking in the North korea."
George: "Country fuckers."
Gilbert: "Fucking special."
George: "Holy fuck."
Gilbert: "Fuck the shit out of them."
George: "A couple of fuckers."
Gilbert: "Fucked once."
George: "Judge fuck."
Gilbert: "Fuckers have feelings too."
George: "Dellefucker."
Gilbert: "Fuck, fuck hooray."
George: "Don't stop fucking."

And then on. Much rests on the duo'south commitment.

"It lasts an hr and a half. Nosotros're going to brand a tape," explains George. "We expect The Fuckosophy to be like muzak, repeating endlessly. We bear cards with us and jot them downwards when 1 comes to us. Nosotros say it, hear it and think information technology."

"And now we accept builders here..." adds Gilbert, conspicuously pleased with their artistic contribution to G&G'southward "Art for All" manifesto.

Each encounter with Gilbert & George is to some extent a work of art in itself. Their entire beings take been devoted to their art since they first met in 1967 on the famous sculpture course led past Anthony Caro at Saint Martins School of Art, as information technology was then. Always against the grain, equally young men – then barely in their twenties and, as George might say, "baby artists" – it was there that Gilbert Prousch and George Passmore began to plough themselves into living sculptures and monuments to their own art. Next yr volition see the 50th anniversary of that fateful meeting, and the beginning of the highly serious endeavour of turning their very existence into art. Withal, this job has always been accomplished with wit, amuse, toughness, kindness, and fortitude. Gilbert & George are 2 of the well-nigh delightful and touching people you will always meet – and neither is a pushover.

This year is the 35th anniversary of the work that possibly expresses the duo and this effort in the clearest, most lyrical, entertaining, and profound way. The Earth of Gilbert & George was completed in 1981 and in many means it is the artists' magnum opus. It is a film that deals with identity, patriotism, duty, cede, life, death, sex activity, and religion. It encompasses and so many of Gilbert & George'south preoccupations, so familiar from their awe-inspiring art works, and yet information technology has an intimacy and poesy that you will often only find when speaking to the artists themselves. It is a moving-picture show that seems even more resonant in postal service-Brexit United kingdom – although this nowadays conversation with the artists takes identify before the votes in the plebiscite take been bandage. The film is set in London, mostly in their house in Fournier Street in Spitalfields, east London – the site of their studio and home for many years, and where this interview is held.

Equally evidenced by the moving-picture show, the changes that have taken place in the capital are quite startling, nevertheless this change and its observation is something that Gilbert & George bask. Somehow, they themselves remain detached, unbowed and unsullied by it – their task at hand as artistic observers is far likewise important for experiments in dress, deportment and dining. Gilbert & George knew who they were at a very early age and stuck with it. Similar the blind prophet Tiresias in T.S. Eliot's The Waste product Land, they accept "foresuffered all" and withal they are the just ones clear-sighted enough to be able to explain this moment in time to everyone else.

Then, every bit at present, the East End is the artistic crucible for the duo, the centre of their world and the prime number target for their ambitions of an "Fine art for All". All human life is here, and above all, Chiliad&K are humanists, something lost from much gimmicky art. It is the site of their cocky-imposed exile, their outsider status, and the studied strangeness of their lives that makes it possible for them to consummate the work that they practise. Their regimented habits of dress, work, and sustenance – they continually eat out, every bit, until recently, they had no kitchen – are all catered for in this small role of the London sprawl. Surrounded by their fantastic Pugin, Dresser, and Godwin Arts & Crafts furniture – including a chair with their new "crest" embroidered upon it and featuring a pubic louse; their vast array of beautiful books, including a library for boys with titles such every bit "Scouts in Bondage" and "From Fag To Hero", which they delight in showing guests; and their endless filing systems for their work and articles nearly them, it is a place of strange society and serenity. "Nosotros feel very privileged. We can go out, have breakfast, come back and do exactly what nosotros want," says George. "We don't accept to ask anyone'southward permission to do annihilation." "And we do non accept people hither!" adds Gilbert. "We have ane Chinese boy who followed united states of america." This is their able assistant, Yigang Yu, "And that'due south it."

In sure means, their existence seems quintessentially English language and from another time. And yet, as George exclaims of Gilbert, "He's Italian!" Indeed, George has the ultimate RP accent, while Gilbert has a more explosive Italian intonation.

"You lot tin exist alone and exist part of everybody hither," says Gilbert of his adopted home.

They both agree that existence part of the living history and continuity in London has shaped their identities. Watching the Trooping the Colour is "The best thing in the world" for George. "Going to the Cenotaph is boggling," says Gilbert.

"And that's where we differ from the balance of the art world," explains George. "Protesting hippies! There is a large difference betwixt us and them."

Indeed, they have no time for the sloppy-looking Jeremy Corbyn. "If you walk the streets of London, y'all never run across anybody who looks similar David Cameron," says George. "Simply y'all do see thousands of people who look like Jeremy Corbyn. Really. If we went to the restaurant we e'er go to each evening and put upwards a motion-picture show of David Cameron, people would end going. But if we put upwardly a film of Jeremy Corbyn, they'd similar it."

We are looking at the opposite terminate of the studio, where a David Cameron poster takes pride of identify. But do they really like David Cameron?

"We call up he is a very fine person," says George. Really?

"Yes," they insist together.

Even after the squealer fucking?

"He did that in a practiced way!" exclaims Gilbert.

David Cameron is clearly i of the duo's heroes and they volition non be swayed. Some other is Prince Harry. "Harry is fantastic," says George. "He is a bully model for many young people. He's highly trained. Highly trained – not many people get to that level." Although the duo are not e'er in complete understanding...

Gilbert: "And George, his favourite at the moment is George."

The majestic infant?

Gilbert: "No, George Osborne."
George: "I think he is pure glamour. And he has both coin and position."
Gilbert: "It's very funny. A few years ago he was a little fat, but now he looks similar a ventriloquist's dummy."
George: "He's a matinee idol for me."

So y'all actually have a crush on George Osborne?

George: "Of class. Well, if I am going to have a crush information technology may as well be on somebody important."

I wonder who Gilbert has a trounce on.

Gilbert: "I would have to think about that."
George: "Theresa May!"

Later on, George Osborne makes an advent – in paper rather than in the flesh. He sits nether glass on a table used by the artists to open their post in the morn. On this "table of pin-ups" he is joined by Colonel Gaddafi's playboy son, Saadi; Oscar Pistorius; Ivor Novello; and a boy kissing a turtle – that ane is for Yigang Yu, who loves turtles. It is not known if George Osborne has now suffered a demotion from the table similar to that from the backbenches, no longer enjoying the position and ability he once did with the artists. And how prescient George was about Theresa May, even if he was merely teasing Gilbert.

"I believe in the fine art, the beauty and the life of the artist who is an eccentric person with something to say for himself. I uphold traditional values with my honey of victory, kindness and honesty. I am fascinated by the richness of the fabric of our world and I honour the high-mindedness of man as the ultimate class and meaning of fine art. Dazzler is my art." – From The World of Gilbert & George (1981)

Gilbert & George are certainly kind and honest, but do they believe they have been victorious in their art?

"We liked it recently when a large truck slowed downwardly on Commercial Street," says George. "And the large, shaven-headed, heart-anile commuter leaned out and shouted, 'Gilbert & George! My life is a fucking moment, while yours is an eternity!' Rather moving I thought."

"It means that what nosotros exercise is working," says Gilbert. "And it is working! We put our pictures up and people think, 'Who did that?' Simply everybody seems to know usa as we walk along. As nosotros walk to dinner in Dalston people stop to have their pic taken with us. Art is very big at the moment. It is part of the entertainment manufacture."

"It'due south official. All the globe is an fine art gallery," says George. "We said that in 1969; that nosotros wanted all of the world to become an art gallery. And it's happened. Every side street around here has an fine art gallery. It's extraordinary."

They got their wish. How exercise they feel almost that?

"We don't desire the old days dorsum," replies George. "If y'all asked a person in 1970 to name an creative person, they might say [affecting a cockney emphasis – George is an incredibly good impressionist] Michelangelo or Leonardo. They did not know a living one. A living boxer, a living murderer, a living paedophile they'd know, but non a living artist. Information technology's quite shocking. It was a very poor diet."

"Now there are so many artists," says Gilbert. "It just used to be the European and American fine art world, now information technology's different. Now an artist can be from anywhere, from the Himalayas, from South America... That's why nosotros believe that nosotros have to concentrate on just being united states of america. Just us."

They accept created their own earth.

"It is the vision, the world vision that we have created," Gilbert continues. "A lot of mod artists are not doing what we are doing. For u.s.a., the centre of our fine art is a human being existence. The others take a formalistic mental attitude, of nice colours and prissy shapes. We have a moral dimension: what is skilful and what is bad in people."

It is indeed a triumph for their art, away from the easy art of found objects, abstraction and fashionable knick-knacks. Or as George puts it: "The fact of the matter is that present you cannot exist a swain or a immature lady and invite somebody home unless you take a bare canvas or a funny sculpture there. You lot will not accept sexual practice with anybody. We see it from the top of the 67 bus in the evenings – there is always a blank canvas over the sofa."

On the contrary, what preoccupies G&1000 more and more is faith, or rather their dislike of it. Which is strange, equally the artists over time accept become almost sacramental figures themselves. Aiming to remove themselves from the surrounding world, their lack of friends – they oftentimes mention how "alone"' they are – and their concern for humanity conveyed through their work, there is nearly an ascetic suffering by the duo. They may well be suffering for our sins on the top of the 67 double-decker.

Gilbert: "Stylites. In France they e'er call us 'Stylites'."
George: "Stylites. They made us stand up on the top of a column for years. And never come up down."
Gilbert: "And never modify."
George: "We always said sex activity, coin, race, and faith. They're involved in everything we do; speak, eat, drink, dearest. Information technology'southward e'er those four things."
Gilbert: "It's very funny, because you realise religion is simply based on opinions in some manner. That's information technology. That's where the trouble is. Religion is about laying down the law of what you are allowed to do and when y'all are allowed to do it."
George: "To this day. Even the Catholic gay adoption uproar is all about that. Like you're doing something funny with your penis."
Gilbert: "Or if you go to Africa, the witch doctors are the aforementioned."
George: "Female circumcision. In Britain. Today."
Gilbert: "I'm sure if you went to India the Hindu leaders would be the same."

And then why are they called – what was it again? – in French republic?

Gilbert: "Stylites? Don't know."
George: "They were in Syria on this column forever. Their whole life." [He's referring to the Christian ascetics, the Stylites, who mortified their bodies by living on top of pillars.]
Gilbert: "The shit piled up, the shit piled upward. No alter, and then they became tanned and and then dark and so blue and strange colours..."
George: "So they would chuck up food..."
Gilbert: "People would supply them with nutrient in a handbasket."
George: "In India they accept these holy men who stand past a tree and the tree grows around them so they can never come out."

Practise they feel they are a bit like that?

George: "No, the French only invented that nigh u.s.a., I retrieve."
Gilbert: "But I think we are in some mode, because nosotros became totally solitary. Not that we wanted information technology at the beginning – it only happened more and more, don't you think?"
George: "They drove us to it."
Gilbert: "We don't like to be trapped by people. We don't like to go to many places."
George: "Restaurants are OK, but not houses."
Gilbert: "We don't similar houses.
George: "You tin can't leave, can you? Not the fashion yous can leave a eating house."
Gilbert: "And we e'er have to perform."
George: "Yes nosotros want to be relaxed and become to dinner lone."
Gilbert: "Information technology's very good considering we've created a globe for ourselves. At six:30 we have to exit the firm for breakfast. George reads dirty books at five o'clock."
George: "The thing is, in the summer nosotros sit in the front room in the window – in that location's a cute light coming in and our new vicar jogs past, because he's a modern vicar. One day he stopped me in the street and said, 'Information technology's so squeamish to run into you reading your books in the morning time.'"
Gilbert: "Every night George walks for 1 and a one-half hours and I walk for 45 minutes and nosotros meet at exactly viii o'clock at the restaurant."
George: "If I arrive a infinitesimal early on they say, 'Where's Mr Gilbert?'"
Gilbert: "It'southward very funny because we e'er take the 67 bus dorsum, at the tiptop of the bus, at the front. We are driving the bus in a way. And then nosotros are virtually Shoreditch where all the nightclubs are, and there are long queues outside the nightclubs. They all can see us. They look out for us. They always spot united states and we always wave."
George: "They have pictures with their mobile phones and all the others are thinking, 'What's going on?'"
Gilbert: "And that's very funny."

I remember seeing them outside the South London Gallery when I lived in Due south East London. Their movements were exactly in tune with each other, I tell them.

Gilbert: "That was a long time agone."
George: "Peckham Rye is probably the place y'all're trying to retrieve of."
Gilbert: "Peckham Rye, yes, because we were talking almost William Blake."
George: "William Blake saw Lord Jesus in a tree there, in Peckham Rye."
Gilbert: "We used to buy design magazines, design books, and i day a company came with an original William Blake book. Nosotros actually didn't want to buy it. We don't like to buy fine art. Merely we bought it – information technology's an amazing volume. There are these astonishing skinheads with wings."
George: "Much more of the planet Earth."
Gilbert: "Much more of the planet Earth. Information technology's amazing. And there is this amazing Jesus with large nails – but they are and so big, the nails."
George: "Like something out of a DIY shop now. Vicious."
Gilbert: "Oh, he'south magical, William Blake."
George: "Albion!"
Gilbert: "Albion."
George: "Sex activity and religion."
Gilbert: "Sex. We're all sex. And religion."

This article originally appeared in AnOther Magazine A/W16. Gilbert & George: THE Bristles PICTURES AND THEIR FUCKOSOPHY opens at White Cube Bermondsey on 22 November 2017.