The New British Exclusive interview with Jamie Reid | @fredperry
Tell us about your short, sharp shock work? It was done for a tv programme on the tenth anniversary of the Silver Jubilee - so 1987. Why is the time right now, in 2014, the right time to revisit a work from 1987? Is there something about today’s culture that means it’s the right time/relevant for a revisit? I’m constantly moving backwards and forwards through my work. Many of the Pistols graphics referenced ideas from my early 70’s Suburban Press period. Can you still be punk in your approach even when working with a brand? Of course. You’re known for the reapproprating recognisable imagery - the subversive/punk aspect of that is pretty self explanatory - but what can be done now? What sorts of imagery or reappropriation of existing imagery really resonate/ challenge people? Well, Peter (de Potter) has done something fantastic with my work. I’m not interested in lazy rehashing, there’s nothing to be gained by that. But intelligent appropriation is fine. It’s tough now though, with the constant bombardment of crass imagery, to be brave and offer beauty. Tell us about your more recent work - Time for Magic - it’s a piece I did twenty years ago now, but it’s probably more relevant now than ever, but it speaks for itself. Magic works outside of logic and systems. Ken Campbell’s daughter Daisy is organising a three day Festival of Magic with the writer John Higgs, that’ll take place in Liverpool in October. I’ll be involved. Alan Moore too. What’s the significance of its title? And what was it about the status quo that led to you creating it? Thatcher, Major, Blair… Do you find you have anything in common in your approach working with Peter? Yes, an urge to find a new way.
Q&A by Laura Havlin.