Tim Noble And Sue Webster - Interview

Interview, Sept, 2000 by Ingrid Sischy

MEET BRITAIN'S LATEST ART SENSATION

INGRID SISCHY: You guys have had quite a year--a major solo show last February at Deitch Projects in New York and, this month, two solo exhibitions, one at Modem Art in London, the other at the Deste Foundation in Athens. You've also got a group show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. How did you two meet?

SUE WEBSTER: We met at the bus stop.

TIM NOBLE: It was the first day of college and we were both in Nottingham, in the north of England, where we'd enrolled in art college. I just happened to be at the bus stop when Sue was there.

SW: And we were both late.

TN: We sort of got talking, and we never thought we'd see each other again, but it turned out we'd enrolled in the same college.

IS: Sue, what do you remember about Tim?

SW: He had no socks on.

IS: Do you have socks on now, Tim?

TN: No.

IS: And what do you remember about Sue?

TN: I remember she was very loud and that she told me she had an interview to be a presenter on this music show called The Tube. She said she'd been short-listed and wasn't going to be staying at college because she was gonna get this job. I liked that about her--she was halfway out the door before she'd even started.

IS: How old are you?

SW: I'm thirty-two. Tim is thirty-three.

IS: And you grew up in the same city?

SW: No, I come from Leicestershire and Tim comes from Gloucestershire, which is in the countryside, so we've got totally different upbringings. My family lives in a sort of fake plastic environment, while Tim comes from this picturesque cottage area. His mum's a Cordon Bleu chef, whereas everything my mum cooked me came out of a tin or packet.

TN: The contrast is amazing--for instance, the fireplace at Sue's parents' is gas with fake jogs, whereas the one at me mum's is made with jogs you've just chopped yourself.

IS: Did you two immediately get on at college?

TN: Sue immediately found a room that had no windows, no natural light, and a big lock on the door, and she just secluded herself from all the other students. I spent a lot of time trying to get in the door. Once I did get in we realized we were quite happy in each other's company.

IS: Did you ultimately get your degrees?

TN: Yeah, we did, for what they're worth. [laughs]

SW: And then before too long we just thought, Well, now's the time to go down to London and try to infiltrate [laughs]. It was clear something was happening in the art world there. But we didn't know anybody or have a studio space or anything, so we applied as a collaborative couple to the Royal College of Art to get M.A.s, but they made us apply separately and only Tim got in.

TN: It was the best thing that could have happened because Sue would just come and use the college's facilities anyway. It kept it much more interesting for me. We had a real field day when we got to the Royal College, so much so that people thought we were exploiting the place when in fact all we were doing was saying, "God, look at these facilities-let's have fun." I think our enthusiasm got up the noses of a lot of people.

IS: And for you, Sue, what was it like?

SW: It felt really strange because I was in this new city where I didn't know anybody. Tim would get up and go to school every day and I'd sit at home thinking, "What the fuck am I gonna do?" So I just started hanging around with him there, and then we started working together.

IS: Do you remember who the people were who comprised the art world when you arrived in London?

TN: Some of today's biggest names, I suppose--the Lucases, the Emins, the Chapmans, the Hirsts--but also everyone around them, the critics, the curators, the galleries. You had to prove yourself artistically before people would take notice. For us, the art world in London then was like being at a party you hadn't been invited to. We were like gate crashers, and no one wanted to talk to us.

SW: Which sounds absolutely awful--but it shouldn't really matter. There's this phenomenon that's happened in London recently where everybody in the art world is each other's best friend. It makes one cringe, in a way. [all laugh] It's like a big love-in, and if you're an outsider you desperately want to be accepted, but when you actually are, you want to run. I suppose, though, at the moment when you're really focused on a show or a piece of work the rest of the world doesn't matter--you're just completely happy to get stuck in your own world.

IS: Speaking of your own world, when I first saw pictures of your work I thought you were performance artists.

SW: What was it that you saw? That's awful. [laughs]

IS: I think maybe it was the fact that you've done all this work in which you replace popular iconography with images of yourselves. But as I started to get to know your art more, it also reminded me of arte povera or more conceptual work by earth artists like Richard Long or Hamish Fulton. And the pieces using lit-up language reminded me of Bruce Nauman, or Ed Ruscha.

SW: I see our influences coming not so much from past art as from things like graffiti, or by what we see in the street, like trash or the carnival lights you find in those cheap seaside resort towns. Our stone formation piece, for instance, includes a heart that contains our initials--like the tagging in graffiti.