Would you say Marcel Duchamp’s famous urinal or Tracey Emin’s unmade bed count as art?
I wouldn’t be conservative and say that these things aren’t art. Both pieces have made us think and provoked us. Sometimes art is about reinvention, reworking a place or a building, or a piece of canvas. Sometimes it is about making a social statement. Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, for example, spoke passionately and eloquently about the Spanish experience. Sometimes, art is more about taking a risk. Who are your favourite artists? It varies. I really like Louise Bourgeois, who is still going strong as an artist in her 90s. I love the art of native peoples, primitive art and outsider art. I did my thesis at college on outsider art and travelled a lot in America looking at this kind of work done by people with no formal training – there’s a great purity about this sort of expression. Which of your own artworks are you most proud of? I think my Thaw project – the idea of taking an iceberg to Belfast – was very interesting because it provoked so much response. It seemed to provoke more energy in
