Talking Tit

I loved how the Liberty text came out in the pictures

Good, I’m glad it’s worked out.

But why ‘liberty’ in the first place? You came up with the idea of using that word…

I can’t remember! It was such a while ago that I made the sculpture, but I’d assume it was the same reason as using it now: that it’s always relevant, ‘liberty’, isn’t it? There’s never enough of it about.

Definitely. The sculptures you made of the tits — you’ve done those quite often before? You mentioned doing them for a charity project?

Oh yeah, I can send you a picture of that on my phone, actually; that was just the other day. I’ve done the tit pieces a lot. You remember when we did that talk together at Situation [at Sadie Coles Gallery], and I had that chair…?

With the concrete boots, and the big sort of caged wire construction all smothered in tits. I can’t remember how long I’ve been doing them now — maybe since about 2001, or something. But they’re so convenient that I use them a lot.

And they’re so recognisable! Because I took the one you gave me home, and my daughter recognised it straight away; she said: “whoah, you’ve got titties!” And she’s only six.

They’re quite amazing to walk around in the street with, because it draws everybody’s eye, and they have to do a double-take as to whether it’s a real tit or not. Because it operates on people as if it is a real tit. It would be quite funny to go to a nursery with them or something, or somewhere with loads of babies — just to see what they make of it. I bet they’d respond to it, too.

What about the concrete shoes that are in the pictures — when was that piece made? And what’s it called?

I can’t remember what I’ve called it at different times, if only because I’ve made a few pairs. It’s going back some years that I made the first pair of shoes, I think; and then later on I got into making those big concrete boots, the thigh-high boots. But the shoes came first. I’ve got such a terrible memory…

Do you remember why you first made them?

Actually, years ago, I started out on it because I was casting my own shoes. This is was in the 90s, with some of the stuff I used to wear — creepers, and weird boots, and things like that. After I’d really worn them out, and they were beyond wearing any more, I’d cast them in concrete; so it started out with my own things. Then later on it morphed into using those big platforms, and then the thigh-high boots and stuff.