Inside the pared-back London studio of artist Michael Landy
The east London studio of Michael Landy is located in what was once a storage facility for fruit and vegetables. It is one of two work spaces he has in this part of the city: the second is a light industrial building in Bethnal Green where, he explains, ‘I make a mess’. Of this studio, he says, ‘This is my thinking space. It is where I read, daydream and come up with ideas.’
The studio is sparsely furnished and clutter free, just like the flat above it in which he lives with his wife, the artist Gillian Wearing. This pared-back aesthetic should come as no surprise to those who remember Michael causing a sensation when he destroyed all his worldly belongings in a 2001 performance piece entitled Break Down. This theatrical event saw box after box of meticulously catalogued items transported on a conveyor belt before being disassembled and thrown into vast bins. His red Saab, his record collection, his father’s sheepskin coat and even his passport all met the same fate.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Break Down. Eventually the deconstructed remnants of Michael’s past made their way to a landfill in Essex, a county he has spent much of the past 12 months thinking about. Though he was born in Hackney, he later moved to Ilford and his new body of work is concerned with Essex Man. This moniker was coined by the conservative historian and polemicist Simon Heffer in an anonymous column for The Sunday Telegraph in 1990, under the headline ‘Mrs Thatcher’s bruiser’.
Michael’s exhibition at Firstsite in Colchester will examine the origins of this term and the extent to which the media, reflecting political agendas, has reinforced often harmful stereotypes. ‘I’m trying to tell a story about working-class aspiration,’ he says. He has created an archive called Essexism, comprising books, articles, TV shows and newspaper articles from the past 30 years, as a way of offering an interrogation of how his home county has been portrayed in contemporary popular culture.
‘Michael Landy’s 'Welcome to Essex’ is at Firstsite gallery in Colchester, from June 26 to September 5: firstsite.uk
Joshua Monaghan1/6Michael in his studio.
Joshua Monaghan2/6One of the titles in his Essexism archive.
Joshua Monaghan3/6Michael’s drawing of Essex Man, based on the original by Edward Collet.
Joshua Monaghan4/6Sketches of the Dagenham Idol.
Joshua Monaghan5/6There are few objects in the studio other than books.
Joshua Monaghan6/6He refers to these books for inspiration.
