Gilbert and George: 9 surprising things the “perv duo” can teach writers
“All my life I give you nothing and still you ask for more.” — Gilbert and George on Art
Gilbert and George live to make art.
You, you tell us, want to write.
You have some ideas, but something is stopping you from putting them on the page.
What is that?
Are you afraid to write about what you want, what you truly feel passionate about? Do you think people will criticize or start trolling you online if you’re honest… or even if you’re not?
Do you feel people just won’t be interested in what you have to say?
Or perhaps you just can’t see the point. After all, writers don’t make money. It’s not a proper job. It’s just an indulgent hobby for people with big egos.
In this post I’m going to debunk these myths and lies once and for all.
FACT: the world needs to hear what you have to say, and furthermore, you have a duty to put it out there!
But don’t just take my word for it: listen instead to the wisdom of Gilbert and George, the eccentric outsiders whose art didn’t fit in. But they did it — are doing it — anyway.
Along with a few choice quotes, let their Laws of Sculptors be your guide to a liberated, successful and authentic writing career!
So, without further ado, here are the nine lessons we can learn from the artist Gilbert and George…
1. Develop your own unique look and style
Law of Sculptors No1: Always be smartly dressed, well groomed relaxed friendly polite and in complete control
Gilbert and George are instantly recognisable.
They’ve been dressing in their trade-mark suits for years. If you listen to them talk, they always speak quietly, respectfully, politely. They’ve learned how to work a room to their advantage, not in a brash, overpowering way, but through their relaxed and controlled manner.
This is what works for them.
So how does this apply to you as a writer?
Well from my perspective being “smartly dressed” can relate to the way you write, your writing style, as much as your choice of outfit.
What I’m talking about here is your unique voice.
Now you may well write in a brash, erratic way, that isn’t at all relaxed, friendly or even polite. All that matters is that you hone your voice to be completely authentic to you. Something that requires no efforting on your part to create, so that every time you put pen to paper we get the real you and not a counterfeit version that is trying to be something it’s not, just to please.
You won’t.
We live in a world where thanks to the internet and social media, anything goes. There is room out there for all styles and voices. There is room out there for you. You do not need to feign a persona and it will probably backfire against you if you do.
Be honest.
Take complete control your writing voice and develop it into something that is uniquely you, so that even when someone reads your work and there’s no mention of an author they still think “A-ha! I know who wrote this!”
2. Gilbert and George say: Ban Religion!
“We have inside ourselves a lot of thoughts, feelings, desires, dreams, hopes, fears — many things inside. And we, as artists, have a great, burning ambitious need to tell these things and put these things out of ourselves.” — Gilbert and George
If you’ve got something to say, say it.
Let’s hear your opinion. It doesn’t matter if you think what you have to say is too controversial. Say it anyway. You can say it politely if that’s your style, but you can still say it.
Whilst Gilbert and George live by a code of politeness, that doesn’t mean they avoid taboo subjects. Indeed, it’s the taboos of life that fascinate them. They embrace them. This is what real life is.
This is what their art is. It’s a comment on the world around us — not a stylised, homogenised and sterilised view, but the world as seen through the unique lens of Gilbert and George.
They say they never have to go far from their London home in Fournier Street to find their art. Ordinary people like you and me, the graffiti, the dirt, the changing cultural mix of people around them, provides plenty of food for thought.
As they say, “we look at the raw material of life. We prefer to come out of the front door, it’s been raining, there’s a puddle there, and there’s a bit of vomit from a Chinese takeaway, there’s a pigeon eating it, there’s a cigarette end, and that’s all there is. And then you know what it is.”
What is your view on the world today? Is it a safe place or terrifying? From Trump to Brexit to FGM to beards, if there’s something you’re curious about you can and should include it in your writing.
It’s time to clean your lens! Be different. Be unique. Show us life from your perspective. And why not cultivate a little radicalism to your style? Who wants to be “just another writer” anyway?
By deliberately breaking away from the mainstream as Gilbert and George have done, you can find your freedom, freedom to express yourself however you want. And that’s true freedom, folks. Be thankful we live in a society where you can express yourself openly.
Because when you’ve decided what you’re going to tell us…
3. Tell it Big!
“We like it very much when the pictures take over. When they’re bigger than the viewer. You go to a museum to look at a picture, but we like it when the picture looks at you.” — Gilbert and George
There are various ways you can interpret this:
Firstly through physical size: some of Gilbert and George’s pictures are literally huge! The picture called “Hope” from Death Hope Life Fear is over six meters wide and four meters deep on its own. (The entire thing is just over 19m wide).
That requires one heck of a wall!
But this is not just about physical size, or in our case a number of words.
Because secondly, you can tell it big through your chosen subject matter: what are the artists trying to tell us? What are you trying to tell your readers, either openly or between the lines, about the world we live in?
In the Mental series of pictures the focus is on a state of mind close to madness, depicting feelings of isolation and alienation. How apropos for today’s world! And when were these pictures produced? The mid 70's!
Why is the importance of mental health only now beginning to be taken seriously?
Some big topics will always need to be talked about. As long as it matters to you, just because someone else commented on it forty years ago doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t contribute to the discussion here and now.
The takeaway from this is this: don’t be afraid to potentially make your writing overwhelming with regard to the scale of, and approach to, the topics that matter to you.
The sky really is the limit here.
Women didn’t get the vote because everyone suddenly thought it would be a nice thing to do. No. Women had to become militants and put themselves on the line through the suffragette movement and tell it big.
Slavery didn’t come to an end because everyone suddenly thought we shouldn’t treat people like that any more. No. The abolitionists had to take a stand and tell it big for what they believed in.
And as an example of a massive small intervention that went big, an ordinary black woman called Rosa Parks helped initiate the civil rights movement by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man.
My question for you is this: what is the big story you are bursting to tell? What aspect of what it means to be human do you have a passion to talk about?
Say what you have to say and say it big. Go where no other writer has gone before. Dare to stand out and be noticed.
And when you do that…
4. Make the world to believe in you
Law of Sculptors No2: Make the world to believe in you and to pay heavily for this privilege
So, how did Gilbert and George start out? Were they an international success from the get-go?
Er, no.
Their big break nearly wasn’t.
There was a famous, international touring exhibition, When Attitudes Become Form, that came to London and Gilbert and George knew the curator. They were sure he would invite them to be included in the show.
He didn’t.
Panic set in. What to do?
They decided to attend the private view as Living Sculptures. They painted their heads and their hands with metallic paints and “stood stock still in the middle of the opening.”
Guess what… they stole the show!
At the end of the evening Konrad Fischer approached them and invited them to Dusseldorf to perform their Singing Sculpture and the rest, as they say, is history.
They didn’t let the narrow mindedness of the art world stop them. They forged ahead and forced the world to take notice. They created their own luck.
They made the world to believe in them, two completely unknown outsiders.
And so it must be for us and our writing! Forge ahead and do it anyway. Develop your look and style as you strike out.
Always believe in what you produce. Trust yourself. Whatever you make is perfect.
I can’t say whether your next piece of writing will result in a phone call from Oprah to appear on her network… but I can tell you that if you don’t keep showing up and sharing your message with the world, that phone call will never come.
So as you check the phone signal and pick up your pen, remember that when you start writing it’s good to:
5. Bleed on the page
“We wanted to do art to be embarrassed. Art that embarrasses ourselves. I think we still to that. We are very embarrassed sometimes at what we are doing, and that’s a good feeling. When it hurts, then it’s true for us.” — Gilbert and George
Gilbert and George bled on the page. Literally in their case. In the late 80’s and into the 90’s, bodily fluids of all kinds made their way into their pictures.
What this means for us is to simply be authentic. If you want to make the world believe in you, you have to be the biggest, boldest, honest version of you there is.
Don’t be ashamed of your message.
Tell us what’s going on and why it matters. Tell us about the messes and the blood and the tears. Lift the veil on your life, at least just a little bit.
Let us know what it’s like to be you and what you’ve learned — or not — through the trials and tribulations of life. How did your opinions and perspectives come about?
And what if people gasp in horror?
Well, keep in mind that someone will always have something to say, yet…
6. While you show us who you are, always remain polite, especially with those who may not agree with you
Law of Sculptors No3: Never worry assess discuss or criticize but remain quiet respectful and calm
Gilbert and George have never really felt loved by the art world. They still feel like outsiders. But they are constantly getting back up from the knock-downs and creating, creating, creating, more and more and more, and celebrating the life of the city they love.
Gilbert and George feel like they have to do what they do regardless of what people say. And now, in their mid 70’s, what else could they do? Retire? Get jobs at B&Q? Art is all they know. They get up each day with an almost child-like anticipation about what they are going to make.
As they say: what if no-one criticized them? That would be the worst thing! Who wants to be an artist so boring no-one has anything to say at all?
Better yet, get the boot in first. “ Perv Duo Desecrate Tate Modern “ is a typical move by them to openly criticize before the criticizers can get a word in. Great headline!
Write your own worst review and know that’s the worst thing anyone will say about your writing. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Fact: being raw can and almost certainly will open you up to criticism. But think about it, not being criticized could be worse than being criticised. Do you really want to remain completely anonymous as a writer for the rest of your life?
Can you really push the boat out and completely spill your guts on the page only by keeping your writing totally to yourself with no intention of showing it to anyone?
Do you really want no one else to ever see it?
This is a safe option, certainly. But if you’re a writer, an artist, you must get comfortable being raw in public. No-one is asking you to be photographed naked and to then have that image blown up to three times life-size and hung in a gallery or printed on a postcard.
All we want is to hear what you have to say. Use a pseudonym if you like. But write!
“If you are submerged in normal life, then your view will be normal. So we have to keep separate from normal life in order to be able to say something that is not known. People come to art for something they don’t understand, that is not in their life already.” — Gilbert and George
So, don’t worry about attracting criticism. The first step to get the world to believe in you is to believe in yourself. Write passionately about these things. Say it truthfully. And let others make up their own minds — or not.
Remember also that some of the “criticism” you receive will be from people who haven’t even read the entirety of what you’ve written. These people are therefore just reacting to the deliberately controversial remark you made in the first line, rather than the reasoned argument you went on to make in the third paragraph.
Do you really want your life to be controlled by such people?
Don’t sweat it. Just keep writing more stuff.
But as you do, remember that occasionally it’s nice to consider others because…
7. Gilbert and George like to give back
“It is important for us to publish our art in books and catalogues, so as many people as possible are able to see it, but we also want them to see the real pieces.” — Gilbert and George
Gilbert and George are currently in the process of converting a 19 thcentury brewery near their home into their own gallery.
There are three reasons for the decision to do this. They want a space where they can:
- Display their own work — Gilbert tells us that “… the Tate never shows our work… because nothing is good enough for them”
- Display the work of young artists they admire
- Provide a non-profit art space where anyone can view art for free
In other words, they are giving back to their local community and local artists, as well as creating a legacy for their work that will enable it to be displayed as they wish long after they’ve stopped creating.
What will your legacy be? How can your writing soothe the world?
8. What does all this mean for me?
“We think of our art as just pictures, not as photographs. We’re using photography, not being photographers. The question of our medium is more for the art profession than for the public. A normal person does not think about such things. You see a picture, you want to know what it says.” — Gilbert and George
The quality of the photographs in Gilbert and George’s pictures is not the issue here. It’s the message they convey, the meaning, the feeling the final picture gives you as the viewer that is the most important thing.
For us as writers, the use of big, complicated words is not required. The real question is: can people understand what I’m trying to say?
How likely is the reader to stop in their tracks and say to themselves “this is important, how does it relate to me?”
Keep the reader posing questions.
And finally, perhaps most importantly…
9. Like Gilbert and George, be prolific!
Law of Sculptors No4: The Lord chisels still, so don’t leave your bench for long
Gilbert and George have been making pictures since the late 60’s, producing a new series more or less every year since.
That is one heck of a lot of pictures!
And let’s face it, the more you produce, the more things people will like, the more people will get to hear about you. The Law of Averages in action, right there!
What this means for us is: write every day. Create. Keep honing your craft.
Look, I know writing can be hard.
Sometimes the words flow and other times… well, we’ve all been there staring at the blank screen wondering when the muse will show up.
Don’t worry: just write the worst piece of garbage you can if that’s all that’s going to show up today.
But get back to your bench tomorrow! Think of the potential rewards, the people you could be helping with your words.
Remember, Gilbert and George were not flavour of the month the moment they left St Martin’s School of Art. But they were the first British artist to show at Tate Modern — albeit after a very long discussion to make it happen.
But the fact is, they did make it happen, through their own tenacity.
They did get noticed at the When Attitudes Become Form exhibition because they deliberately put themselves in the space and made a polite scene.
So as this post draws to a close, it seems fitting to give the final word to Gilbert and George as I ask you to consider this:
“What do I want to say to the world today?”
Want to know more? Act now and take a look at my kindle book Paradigm Shift, Think Better Live Better for more tips on living life on your own terms! And sign up here for the Eucharisteo! series of manifesting books. Enjoy!
Originally published at https://li-design.co.uk on July 4, 2019.
