I feel like self-delusion is one of the biggest difficulties of life, you know?
From the inside, behind the glass, you can't really see what is happening out there.
What you think, or say, about your work is not necessarily what is really the case, you know?
But I try to make work in the light of the thought that I can't really know what I’m doing.
[String quartet tuning up]
The field of art - it does welcome people in doing a lot of different things, that don’t necessarily add up.
Crazy stuff, that in other fields no-one lets you do.
Martin Creed singing: We are bitten down, and clamped on
we won’t let go, we’re joined like dogs. We are bitten down, and clamped on,
we won’t let go, we’re joined like dogs.
[Guitar picking]
[Guitar and hand clapping]
I’m understanding, I’m understanding, I’m understanding, I’m understanding.
Martin Creed: Working on, effectively irrational projects is very, I think –
there isn’t enough of that in the world.
Doing my work helps me in my life in that way - that it’s something to cling onto.
That, at it’s best, it can help me to then deal with the chaos that is ever changing.
[Audio from Work No. 503]
Generally when I look at the things that I do, I often have a feeling of disgust basically.
That’s usually my initial reaction [laughs]. Especially when it’s a new thing
because it’s this stuff that kind of comes out of you - and there it is, and it’s like ‘argh!’,
and it’s never, and it always, you know…
You need to try and think, ‘okay, I’ve got an instant repulsion to this thing that I’ve done,
but wait a minute, because maybe tomorrow it’s not going to look like that’.
Stage Manager: Can we do the chairs and the music stands for Martin?
Creed: When I do things on-stage, I try to basically do things on-stage the same as off-stage effectively.
If I feel like it went well I might go back and try and listen to what actually happened.
To try and understand why it went well, other than...
And so if it’s recorded, I can try and do that.
I mean a lot of the time I don’t listen to a lot of the recordings I make.
If I’m working on paintings, or whatever, I would try to save and keep all the extra
bits of paper that you just try out your pencil on. You know, the bit on the floor that is
like collecting the drips, just in case that’s the work. You know, you think you’re doing
that, but in the work is like the drips on the floor, or whatever.
[Sound of string quartet sound checking]
I think I get addicted to things, and that includes rhythms, or forms of words.
Repeating things, I think, I’ve always found that kind of comforting
But without that the world is just like a blobby soup that has no definition.
I think giving it a number is like trying to control it, I mean that is what people
do to prisoners, you know? [Laughs]
I suppose it’s like that with your own thoughts and feelings.
I sometimes think the best thing, the best way to live or work is to basically just jump
off the cliff. And then you just have to - if you have to swim for your life, then that
takes up all your energy.
I mean for me that’s why I do live gigs as well a lot, because if you do something
live, in front of people, the pure fear of situations like that can help just to let
go of some of the things you might hang onto in private.
It’s not like pre-preparing something. Certainly, when I do things I don’t want to put up
a front. It’s something that I don’t like, when I feel as if someone’s
feeding me controlled pieces, you know?
A work might be the equivalent of a fence – a fence with a repeated pattern, through
which you can see the world, but which also protects you from the world.
Because the lions cant come and eat you ‘cos there’s a fence there, you know?