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Michael Landy (studio): This was formerly your studio and now it's mine, although not
for much longer. I keep saying that the mess on the floor is due to cut backs- we can't
afford cleaners; did you let cleaners into the studio when you were here?
Alison Watt: No I didn't let anyone in, I did all my own cleaning.
Alison Watt: (outside National Gallery) I had been coming to the National Gallery for
years before I was chosen as Associate Artist, I was first brought here when I was a very
young child by my father who is also a painter, I have been visiting the National Gallery
since I was seven or eight years old so I have always felt it's my spiritual home. Artistically
I know the collection very well and for the entire time I was working here I felt very
at home and since the experience has come to an end I don't think there is a day that
passes in my own studio that I don't think about it, because it had such a profound effect
on the way that I make work.
Alison Watt (studio): You know what is really weird about being back in the studio is that
is seems much smaller than I remember, I remember it as being huge?
Michael Landy: I put more lights in because I like a lot of light, I don't mind if it
is just artificial light.
Alison Watt: I think it is because you have as much imagery on the floor as you have got
on the walls, I think that makes it feel as if you are inside a piece of your work, that
is what it feels like. Did you find that your way of looking at paintings changed when you
were here?
Michael Landy: Well the thing is I don't really look at paintings. I don't paint. That's the
other thing that struck me before I did this- how am I going to do this because obviously
99% of the art is painting, and I felt that I wouldn't be good enough, that was my first
feeling- that what I did was different and that I just would not be good enough, but
then I embraced that in a sense.
Alison Watt: My whole way of looking at paintings changed when I was here because I found that
prolonged looking became an intrinsic part of my time here, and I found the whole looking
experience turned into a sort of meditative thing for me because I had the experience
of being able to look at a painting whenever I wanted to, for as long as I wanted to, it
means it didn't have an obvious beginning and end to it, that really changed it for
me. Its interesting because I think with especially old master painting you tend to, without even
realising it, use it as a short hand when you're looking at them because you are so
familiar with the imagery. It is interesting because when I first came in the first thing
I saw was imagery from St Jerome and the rock- I was brought up as a Catholic so I have a
lot of Catholic imagery.
Michael Landy: My thing was the Catherine Wheel, the first thing I noticed was the Catherine
Wheel as yours was the chest beating
Alison Watt: Is this the most recent?
Michael Landy: Yes this is what I am still working on, so it's all the St Catherine Wheels
in the collection, apparently there are thirty two, I have counted them- so thirty two Catherine
Wheels; so these are all fragments, so I liked the idea that they have all been collected
and been dumped outside the National Gallery, which would never happen.
Alison Watt: I love this though, because it is incredibly atmospheric- it was the first
thing I saw when I came in, and because of the way the room is it feels part of the room,
you feel as though you are inside one of your pieces.
Michael Landy: Well it kind of becomes part of the floor, part of the fragments of this-
I like creating a mess... but you cant find anything.
Alison Watt: I am blown away by how much work is here, it's extraordinary, it's amazing,
I was just blown away by the amount of work Michael has done in such a short time -- it's
incredible.