Hew Locke Tells Us How He Ticks

Just a few words about the wonderful Hew Locke, whose sculpture Parade drew me like a magnet every time I went to Tate Britain. There was an interview with him on Wednesday at the Royal Academy to which I had to go. It was short but so very sweet: we saw his drawings of a cinema, a Mosque and a Hindu temple in Guyana, that country with town-names that reflect Dutch, French and British colonial occupation, where the population has south-Asian, east-Asian and African-heritage people.

There was a print of a statue of Queen Victoria which he had drawn on. Once situated outside the courthouse, she had lost her nose and an arm when she was dynamited, and she was relegated to the back of the building. Eventually, she was placed out front again, where she was liberally decorated with yellow paint and just left like that as a comment. He told us about the Queen Victorias being shipped all over the world, and made it seem comical, even.

He'd done a decorated facsimile of Colston in 2009 (I think) and told us what an attractive statue it was; an attractive statue of a horrible man.

He had found it impossible to get any commissions because of the nature of his work; eventually, the proposals became the work. He bought old bond certificates (including a Refugee Bond) on eBay and painted over them. There was a particularly beautiful Chinese Imperial Gold Loan certificate he'd doctored in 2010, with a critical map of the UK.

He told us about his store of titles, and about moving to Guyana from Edinburgh after so many episodes of racism, and keeping the sound of bagpipes in his head- and his mother not allowing him to wear a kilt when he got there.

It was being webcast, and the text translator couldn't cope with the occasional use of the word 'piss', translating it as 'business'. Oh dear, the indoctrination of these services!

He was humorous, spontaneous and genuine. Let's put our wee hands together and pray that he doesn't end up getting showbizzified like Grayson Perry, and end up as a Personality on Have I Got News For You. Seeing what's to come, I sincerely hope that he remains in the world of art and sculpture so we can benefit from his reflection of our silly selves rather that being 'entertained'. There is something in what he said about battlefield spoils, and the other side of history is more interesting than the main story itself, most of the time.