I’m from the UK but studying art in Antwerp. What is your favourite Belgian painting?
MARILYNNE @ Issue no. 281Every time I set foot in my studio, intentions blazing, I crumble with pathetic and flaccid paralysis. Do it, paint. No. Fuck. Why not? I can’t get my brain right in that space anymore, and I thought my whole life was going to be devoted to my art. I don’t know how to reconnect or reconcile making art in a world made of war and cruelty, how would painting a fucking picture ever help. How do you create in this environment?
DAN @ Issue no. 274I love your music and its ability to relate common suffering, as you have discussed in the past. Do you ever look back at your anthology and wish you had been more overtly politically outspoken – referring to activism rather than politics per se – in your art?
JP @ Issue no. 102I’ve always seen you as something of an underrated humourist. Do you see comedy as an essential art form?
LUKE @ Issue no. 75I recently received a pair of ‘Bad Seed’ tube socks as a birthday present. A thoughtful gift from a dear friend, but they have left me somewhat confused. The almost spiritual connection I feel to you and The Bad Seeds’ work seems at odds with what is essentially banal (though very nicely designed) merchandise. I love the socks, I’ve worn the socks, but I feel they might be a representation of everything your work isn’t. I wonder what your thoughts are on the merchandising of art, and whether or not you’d wear tube socks with the name of an artist you greatly admired on?
PIERS @ Issue no. 54How do you feel about the current trend of connecting the shortcomings of an artist’s personal conduct and the art they create and using that criteria to determine if said works are corrupted and therefore to be relegated to the dustbins or not? What does it mean for the future of art if we expect our artists, those that help us collectively explore and understand the human experience, to be morally perfect and beyond reproach?
JASON @ Issue no. 35