I quite like, but I do not necessarily love, the work of Gilbert & George. It’s cheeky, it often looks great, it’s interesting, and all, but it can get a little heavy-handed now and again, and I really think they went off the rails visially once they got their hands on a copy of Photoshop. But whatever: these things happen. There are very few artists of any kind who manage to produce work that feels just as fresh and resonant all the way through their careers.
I do appreciate a number of the themes that run through what they do, however, many of which are summed up nicely in this manifesto-slash-list of commandments-slash-performance piece:
-
Thou shalt fight conformism
-
Thou shalt be the messenger of freedoms
-
Thou shalt make use of sex
-
Thou shalt reinvent life
-
Thou shalt create artificial art
-
Thou shalt have a sense of purpose
-
Thou shalt not know exactly what thou dost, but thou shalt do it
-
Thou shalt give thy love
-
Thou shalt grab the soul
-
Thou shalt give something back