The performance I still think about is… Saul Williams in Dalston many years ago. The queue was so long to see him that not everybody could get in so he came out and did an impromptu performance on the footpath.
The best advice I’ve ever gotten… ‘Don’t worry about what others are doing, put your head down and do the work.’
The art that means the most to me is… Subway Art by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. It was the first major publication that documented the nascent graffiti scene in New York. I got it when I was a teenager and I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time with a book. I was as enthralled by the NY cityscape as I was by what was painted on the trains and it really opened up a whole new world to me.
My favourite thing about the new Founder’s Edition bottle is… collaborating with Maser. We’ve worked together previously on two murals—one in London and the other in Arkansas—so it was great to work together on a large canvas in my studio that formed the basis for the bottle design.
What I like about being an artist is… I let my paintings do the talking.
If I wasn’t an artist, I would be… a jazz musician. In reality, I was never good enough but I played the saxophone for many years in school and briefly considered studying it instead of going to art college.
The magic of art to me is… happy accidents. Often, the paintings I struggle with the most – the ones I nearly abandon – can be the ones that work out the best.
The Hennessy Founder’s Edition Bottle, €41, is created with pride by Irish artists Maser and Conor Harrington and available widely from grocery and independent wine shops.
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