Interview: Harry Pye

Harry Pye in collaboration with Rowland Smith: Sleepless in Slagelse, 2008. 40 x 50 cm acrylic on canvas

How did you come up with the title 'Sleepless in Slagelse'?

I started painting about 4 years ago. I was living in an estate in East Dulwich. There was a crazy guy who would run after me shouting "Blood clot". I was very, very broke and very worried about my future. I did a painting called, "Sleepless in South London" that people liked. It seemed to get the ball rolling. The artist Stella Vine encouraged me to paint more and sold a painting for me in America. Then, Greta Sarfaty Marchant and Jasper Joffe encouraged me to do a solo show. A collector in Brazil wanted the painting so I made a new version but called it, "Sleepless In Sao Paulo" instead. Thomas in Copenhagen also wanted the painting so I made a new version for him. I'd been doing a bit of Internet research about Denmark. The humble cobbler is kind of a reference to Hans Christian Andersen (who is easily the most famous Dane in the UK). I think I was reading about his life and somehow came across the name, Slagelse. I'd love to go there one day.

Are the works self-portraits?

Everything an artist does is a self-portrait. The world is a stage and each of us must play a part. I would love to be a romantic lead or an action hero but somehow I am always more convincing when I play the role of the loser.

Harry Pye: Stump, 2006. 91 x 91 cm Acrylic on canvas

Your works often refer to other works or popular culture, what are the works on show in Copenhagen based on?

The paintings in the Everyday Life show are a funny bunch. There's one based on a character in John Osbourne's play, The Entertainer. A washed up musical act is alone in his dressing room. His stage props, a bowler hat and cane, are next to him, and he is running through the lyrics of a song he's going to sing on stage which are, "Why do I care? Why do I worry?" Once upon a time he had the audience in the palm of his hand but now he performs to half filled theatres and no one laughs at his jokes. Another of the paintings is based on the comedian Peter Cook. There was once a sketch on a show called, "Not Only But Also" in which Peter Cook played a humble fairy cobbler and Dudley Moore played the part of his wife. The humble cobbler works all day and all night making shoes to try to make some money to pay the rent but is unable to satisfy his wife's sexual desires. The frustrated wife taunts the humble cobbler about his capabilities as a lover and about how boring he is to be with until eventually he explodes with rage and attacks her. Amusingly she finds his loss of temper arousing. It is one of the funniest sketches I've ever seen in my life. When I'm in Redchurch Street in Shoreditch I often go to a pub named The Owl & Pussy Cat. The pub is named after a nonsense poem by Edward Lear. The headmaster of my first school absolutely loved to recite poems like Owl & Pussy Cat to us. I prefer the pub to the poem. The Van Gogh Starry Night bit was entirely the work of my friend Liz Murray. Stump were a band around in the mid 1980's. They were a favourite of the DJ John Peel and they were one of the first bands I ever saw live. Next time you're on YouTube look up Stump performing the song Buffalo - I think it will bring a smile to your face. "Stir Crazy" is the name of a film with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor - however it's actually loosely based on a scene in a Jim Jarmusch film called Down By Law. The people in the painting are me, Marcus Cope and Rowland Smith. Marcus and Rowland are two friends I often make paintings with. Lastly, Sleepless in Slagelse is ever so slightly based on a Philip Guston painting which I think was inspired by the cartoonist R. Crumb. The quotation comes from a song by Leonard Cohen called I was never any good at loving you.

Harry Pye in collaboration with Rowland Smith: A Humble Cobbler Am I, 2008. 60 x 75 cm acrylic on canvas Harry Pye: Why Should I Care, 2007. 40 x 50 cm acrylic on canvas

Harry Pye: Stir Crazy, 2007. 50 x 120 cm acrylic on canvas

I know you are usually the one putting on shows of other people's work, doing the interviews, publishing magazines and being proactive. How is it being the artist in a more conventional sense?

When I was a student I did a placement with one of my art heroes - Bruce McLean. He used to tell me that people always asked 'doesn't being a tutor get in the way of your work?' And he'd always say 'no', because it's all part of the same thing, it's all me. I think it's true. When you are at school you are allowed to cover your books with pictures of people you like. At home you put more pictures on your wall. When you're hungry you either make something yourself or get take away. And so on, and so on. Basically you don't need to put a beret on or buy a bag of clay to express yourself and communicate. And so, by the same token I might make a fanzine, curate a show of other artists and not put my own paintings in it, or make a video - but it's still all the same thing. It's all me."

Why do you do all these other things - I assume you are still doing them?

It's really hard to say why we do the things we do. Over the years I've had friends who were very unhappy about their parents getting divorced. These friends tended to get married at a young age. I've had other friends whose parents died. These friends often had children of their own very soon after. We've all heard Michael Jackson on TV saying how he never had a childhood so now he's making up for it by living in a Neverland Ranch. I imagine a therapist would conclude that I wasn't able to be myself or express myself or (whatever it is I do) at a certain age and so now I'm trying to make amends. Who knows? Who cares?

Harry Pye in collaboration with Liz Murray: The Owl and the Pussycat, 2007. 61 x 61 cm acrylic on canvas

What is your current favourite show, music or artist?

In terms of art shows the only things I really, really like tend to be at the National Gallery. I like walking round Greenwich Park. I like the Horniman Museum. There's an album based on the songs of Serge Gainsbourg that I'm playing loads at the moment, it's by Mick Harvey. I like watching Robert de Niro films a lot. I like things like Cop Land and Mad Dog & Glory more than Raging Bull. I've been reading a few books about Miro recently. Geraldine Swayne had a good solo show at the Aquarium Gallery recently. Her husband is in the band Gallon Drunk I went to see them play in Camden recently and they were wild. It was really exciting, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Comedy-wise I rate Richard Herring, John Hegley and Stewart Lee. Richard Herring did a routine on his recent "Oh Fuck I'm Forty" tour that made me laugh uncontrollably in the way I used to when I watched John Cleese in Fawlty Towers.

You've been in the alternative British art scene for a long time. Has it changed and how do you see things continuing in the UK?

The big change I've noticed in the UK over the last 10 years is that artists are everywhere. They get talked about in pubs. The free newspapers like Metro feature round-ups on the best private views. When I was 15 the only living artists that were household names were Beroyl Cook, David Hockney, Rolf Harris, Peter Blake and Francis Bacon. You were really lucky to get shown at the Tate or have a South Bank show done on you. The interest and demand from the general public in art made by young people has multiplied a hundred times at least.

Thank you