Fooling around with Paul Kindersley

The commission is part of SKIP Gallery’s month-long Selfridges takeover Like It or Lump It, masterminded by artist duo Baker & Borowski. For the first two weeks multidisciplinary artist Maja Djordjevic exhibited a sculpture of two happily nude figures frolicking on a pile of ice cream, while upstairs in the changing rooms, artist Claire Pearce presented an equally boundary-pushing video piece about the body image and social media.

For me drag is something universal that everyone engages with daily: we wake up and choose clothes to fit a storyline – however consciously or unconsciously. I think it’s always been there, both in the nuanced everyday and at the extreme end, since pantomime dames. I’m fascinated by how people create stories through adornment and by people who push it so we see the unexpected in the everyday. Clothing can act as a catalyst to reevaluate our surroundings. Although the word ‘drag’ has had a renaissance, the concepts are human and eternal.

I think all art is performance at some level – the act of drawing is a private contemplative performance. But the more physical side for me came out of questioning the status of objects and the need for more ‘stuff’. It’s freeing to create things that have a limited life and are experienced in a moment that doesn’t have the pressure of the physical object as desired outcome. I find that the physical artworks that are created through a performance have a vitality and spontaneity that intrigues and excites me. 

I think the politics comes from a place of play, idiocy and spontaneity. Things that are frowned upon or marginalised by society are spaces that make fun a political act. Play, confusion and uncertainty are essential for creation. Drag for me is an extension of artistic self-expression, as I said, something that everyone participates in some way every day anyway. Clothes and the self can be as basic as about shape colour and excitement. Like art, there is no need for segregation and categorisation. 

Storytelling is the oldest form of art – and performance art. I’m fascinated by the stories that have gone before and the ones we make up and adapt. Keeping things alive is a direct connection to the past. I like to use images and references that are around in pop culture as this is a way in but also you stitch yourself into the wider universe. I am always on the lookout for things that spark excitement, whether that’s finding things on the street, a painting at the Tate, someone’s blusher or a Shakespeare play – I don’t like to see hierarchies between influences and beauty.

I am creating a performance installation piece in the skip called Ship of Fools, based loosely on a painting by Hieronymus Bosch. It’s also inspired by many other things, including [choreographer] Robert Helpmann, William Blake, my friends and family, heraldry, [artist] Jack Smith and avant garde theatre. It consists of hand painted backdrops and clothes that I have sewn from discarded pieces of fabric I found at art schools in London. It’s interactive scenery that will come alive during performances, with a play I have written that concerns five people who have been stuck aboard a boat for years without seeing land. It will be magic and confusing and silly and intriguing.

I’m drawn to makeup tutorials online because, as a far as I know, they are one of the only artworks in which the creator and viewer are almost in the same position – alone in front of a laptop. It’s immediate and direct. Most of the time it’s not even about the makeup and it works as a catalyst for storytelling. As a traditional artist would choose colors, so does the makeup artist, and tells a story with each brushstroke. After the camera is turned off the makeup is washed off and no physical residue remains, just the film floating online. If I’m making it sound romantic, it’s because I believe it is.  There’s intimacy and revelation, like reading a secret diary. I think that’s what appeals. 

My favourite youtuber is Marzia Gaggioli. She creates hundreds, if not thousands, of music videos using green screen, writing and performing everything herself. She plays all the characters and even designs the costume. She sings in about 10 different languages. There’s something honest, ambitious and fun about her perseverance.

In my opinion the greatest artist of all time (in this field) is Jack Smith, the New York artist and contemporary of Warhol. For identity, celebrity and performance art, my idol is Lady Emma Hamilton. The contemporary artist that inspires me the most is Julie Verhoeven, whose work is so exuberant, funny and full-on. I can’t get enough.