I'm the teddy of the future

Good art can be both sad and embracing. Well not as embracing as a damp towel after a swim, one of my pet hates. I remember being a basically comfortable kid who loathed school swimming lessons for the cold floors around pools, in the shower and the locker room. Grey concrete and white tiles were not always fashionable.

The virtual world of pop art is supposed to be this gleeful objective universe where time stands still in the nicest way possible. So, I didn’t think I would make myself cry when processing a work about my own pop fun house. The past comes back to haunt, especially artists.

This Gutinke character is my non-identical twin. I’m the teddy of the future. I want to be valued for sentimental reasons until the day I die. I want to be more of a Barney than a Godzilla. As I rot away I want to be loved for my bald patches and bruises.

The popular little Suzy figure, that used to collect cash for the Cerebral Palsy Association, is my confrontation with imperfection. Look at it from my POV: there are these two babies who want to play, but each does not yet know about the other. How can you make a play date with your friend of the distant future?

As an artist and a father, how can your work save the children of a parallel universe?

Good art of the future will contain some of the past in it, obviously.  So, as an artist who wants to go there, I feel the need to bring these two entities together.

Don’t call me simple or formulaic, because I don’t feel like I belong in anyone’s little boxes.