Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives: Q&A with Darren Cullen

Darren Cullen draws “stuff about things, which seems to make good people laugh and bad people angry.”

Imagine Hell taken over by slick businessmen who start running it for profit, or army recruitment posters where the words “Become a Suicide Bomber” is the deal-clincher. Welcome to the world of artist, illustrator and writer Darren Cullen, AKA Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives.

Darren creates “stuff” (read illustrations, films, billboards/”ad nausea”, toys etc) that uses humour to critique the dark things taking place in the world: society’s obsession with buying things, army propaganda, the Conservative party.

Darren’s loathing of consumerism and advertising is personal. He started his career at Leeds College of Art studying, you’ve guessed it, advertising. Becoming “steadily horrified at the ethical implications involved”, he promptly quit and enrolled at Glasgow School of Art to study Fine Art.

We’ve been obsessing over Darren’s work for some years now: if there’s a burst of unexplained laughter in the  Zetteler office, it’s usually because somebody is the on Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives website.

How would you describe what you do?

We love your no bullshit approach. Why is it important to you?

I’m interested in statements that are both controversial and true. If I can find a way to reframe an old issue in a new way that sounds transgressive even though it’s hard to argue with my point, then I’m usually onto something. The Action Man: Battlefield Casualties were probably the best example of this. I’ve seen so many people look at them and their first reaction is, “that’s too much”, but a few moments later they end up going, “It’s true though, isn’t it?”

Why is creativity an important force in drawing attention to social and political issues?

Because a list of problems is boring. Creativity is also being used to cover up and even create these issues in the first place. Look at the way large companies use greenwashing or pinkwashing marketing campaigns to distract from their crimes. When you have corporations like Shell and BP producing slick ads claiming to be part of the solution to global warming, that takes a staggering amount of creativity on behalf of advertisers to prevent the public gagging on the stench of that bullshit.

Sarcasm is a big part of your work. Why is it so powerful?

I don’t know if sarcasm is especially powerful, but it is an appropriate response to a culture dominated by advertising. All genuine human emotions and experiences have been co-opted and weaponised by marketers in order to sell us worthless pieces of tat, and to make us feel like this tat defines who we are. When a society has become so vapid that a John Lewis advert becomes the major cultural event of a season, and a word like ‘love’ now describes our feelings towards a brand of yoghurt or a packet of crisps, then sarcasm seems to me like the only rational way to engage with that reality.

How do people respond to your work?

It tends to involve either laughing or shouting.

You quit advertising to become an artist. Why is it so important to be true to yourself and have a genuine belief in what you’re doing?

I wanted to head off the inevitable mid-life crisis that seems to be a common feature of the advertiser’s career. I didn’t want to spend half my life making people I’ve never met feel bad about themselves while entreating them to burn down the planet. Even though I have friends who still work in the industry, I think manipulating the desires and aspirations of the public, and especially children, using an arsenal of sophisticated and emotionally damaging psychological techniques is an appalling way to make a living and an even worse way to sustain an economy.

What did you exhibit at your recent solo exhibition at WAR gallery?

It’s mostly a mix of different projects from this year. There was work about the first world war, robotic automation, police brutality, army recruitment, the refugee crisis and nuclear holocaust, but er, in a funny way? There was also work from my anti-Shell greenwashing installation at Glastonbury. I also have a few of the scale model sculptures I’ve made this year, including Thomas the Tank, and Golf Cart One, Donald Trump’s heavily armoured golf cart.

What is the piece of work you’re most proud of?

This year it’s been a tie between Golf Cart One and a very intensely detailed painting of hell I finished a few weeks ago. It’s about a metre tall and shows the process of business people entering Hell and taking the place over and running it for profit. You can see the full thing on my website.