Well apparently there were only 30 tickets for the event in total (per night), so maybe not too big a surprise that neither you or I were able to get a ticket. The talk itself was in Gallery 3, where the ongoing exhibition also is, and the room itself can probably only comfortably seat 30. There are about a dozen of Bill's works around the walls, including the motorway chevrons sign, and a "For Sale" carpet. About half the exhibits seem to be from the "Sulphur In The Wind" adventure. I went to the exhibition during the late afternoon today, and managed to have a short conversation with Bill, while there was just myself, my girlfriend, Bill, and that guy called Chris whose surname I can't remember but who was the warm-up act for the "Bad Wisdom" readings years ago. Probably got more chance to speak to him than if I'd been at the talk, in fact. As I haven't really followed Bill Drummond's career in art particularly closely (haven't gotten around to buying "How To Be An Artist" yet, although I will as soon as somebody buys me a book token for my birthday), I decided to ask him about something that in a way I wanted to get confirmed from the man himself- how much of a problem he felt it was that his past, more well-known work would overshadow his current work, and that there would always be people fixated and continually quoting and re-quoting from work he did ten years ago rather than work he does now. As I started to mention words like 'fans' I could see him visibly shrinking away from me, obviously worried that a 'fan' had entered the building and might be trying to corner him for hours and ask lots of over-asked KLF questions. He seemed to warm a little though. He explained that it could be a real problem for him, but he tried to limit it as soon as possible. At tonight's talk, he said, he was intending to not let people ask questions, partly because "I do the talking" but also as a way to prevent any KLF obsessives from recycling old questions that have nothing to do with "How To Be An Artist". Two of the works on the wall were two lists, one named "I Have" (a potted biography of Bill Drummond) and the other named "I Will". Tellingly, on the "I Have" list, there is nothing listed between 1981 ("discovered Richard Long") and 1994 ("burnt the money"). So my girlfriend and I went for a pint and I felt as if something that had been nagging at me for years had been confirmed- my opinion, now with some solid evidence behind it, is that Bill Drummond is far enough beyond the KLF to be able to look back at it realistically, but at least in part because of the still large numbers of KLF obsessives, he has no real intention of returning to there. Having said that I'll probably be proven completely wrong at the Barbican when suddenly, while the stage is empty, a giant pyramid blaster is wheeled on-stage and after a few seconds it begins to resound with the chant of "MU MU!"... Stuart. On Thu 05 Sep, John wrote:
All tickets sold out and very unlikely to be any returns... :-(
http://www.artguide.org/uk/AG.pl?Action=4085971E&Axis=1028746207F http://www.artguide.org/uk/AG.pl?Action=ExhibsByName TALK BY BILL DRUMMOND: HOW TO BE AN ARTIST Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol 12-Sep-2002
Anyone else seen these? http://www.arnolfini.demon.co.uk/visual_arts/drummond/ http://www.arnolfini.demon.co.uk/visual_arts/drummond/forsale.jpg
-- Stuart Bruce - klf@atomiser.demon.co.uk or preferably stuart@atomiser.demon.co.uk The Utah Saints Mailing List http://groups.yahoo.com/group/utahsaints/