Pick of the day Bill Drummond- Library of Mu

Pick of the day Bill Drummond

By Andrew Eaton (30 September, 2002, The Scotsman)

WHAT will Bill Drummond be remembered for? Burning a million quid? Giving Rachel Whiteread a GBP 40,000 award for "worst artist of the year" the same year that she won the GBP 20,000 Turner Prize? Co-writing a book, The Manual, that guaranteed you a number one single or your money back? Leaving a dead sheep outside the Brit Awards? Or perhaps his latest notion, cutting a $20,000 work of art into 20,000 pieces and selling them off at $1 a piece.

An always entertaining, if shadowy, figure, Drummond hovers somewhere between performance artist and practical joker. He was a pop star, of a sort, for a while, dressing up as Doctor Who on Top of the Pops for his biggest hit, Doctorin' The Tardis. Then he was in a proper pop group, of a sort, for a while, as half of the KLF. Now he's sort of an artist, has written a book called How To Be An Artist (which doesn't, typically of Drummond, actually tell you how to be an artist) and is in Scotland for the next two weeks. He hasn't decided as such exactly what he's going to do while he's here, but he's here nonetheless.

There are two definite dates in the diary. All this week he's at the CCA in Glasgow with an exhibition, A Smell of Sulphur in The Wind. (It takes its title from the $20,000 picture, by artist Richard Long, which Drummond cut up.) On 16 October he's at Dundee Contemporary Arts to talk about How To Be An Artist. In between, who knows? But expect it to be memorable.

A Smell Of Sulphur in The Wind is at the CCA, Glasgow, today until 4 October, with live performances tomorrow and 3 October at 8pm, tel: 0141-332 7521

Comments

There are 0 comments for this record
You can leave a comment below.

code, concept and descriptions © 1994-2010 the Library of Mu
all full text articles are © their original author
Contact the librarian: librarian@libraryofmu.org