Seeing DOUBLE
Legendary art duo Gilbert & George reunite with London compatriot and fashion designer Jonathan Anderson to muse about dualities in life and artistic practice.
As a masterful monochord pair, Gilbert & George flawlessly perform their score where one begins a sentence and the other completes it. They are two voices but one answer. The so-british artistic couple are matched not only in thought but also in their fixed uniform costumes, which are complementary in color and have become their brand image since their inauguration in 1967 while studying sculpture at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London.
With his youthful look and rebellious wick, like a wisp in perpetual motion, northern Irishman Jonathan Anderson seems to be in perfect contrast. He divides his time between his own brand, JW Anderson, and the Spanish luxury house Loewe. Known for his quirky sartorial signature, Anderson found his latest inspiration in the motto of his fellow compatriot, Oscar Wilde: “The secret of life is in art.” The fashion designer doesn’t hide his admiration for Gilbert & George’s work, though, having collaborated with the duo previously in 2018, and reminds us in passing how much the generations continue to influence each other.
Do you believe there is a relationship between art PAMELA GOLBIN: and fashion? None. Absolutely none. We never looked at fashion. GILBERT: When we started to walk the streets of London in 1968, we wanted to be ourselves in a big way. That’s why we owned the suits of— —the suits of our responsibility. As lower-class GEORGE: people, we believe that it’s very important that you put on a suit for an important occasion. If you go out for a job or go to a wedding or a funeral or a christening, you put on a suit. And we believe that every single day of our life is very important.
If you put a suit from every decade of the last hundred years into a computer and you press the average button, it would come up with something like the suits we wear every day. We also quite like Oscar Wilde, who of course said that fashion is horrible, which is why it has to change so often. Gilbert & George, I was very influenced JONATHAN ANDERSON: by your work when I was at university, and I thought our collaboration [in 2018 with JW Anderson] was a very good platform to speak to younger people about it. There’s a beauty in British humor that I’ve always liked. When you look at the early-‘80s series that you did, the men are incredibly seductive. They are people that you want to look up to. Our collaboration was ultimately about my admiration.
Jonathan, you were recently named to the board of the Victoria PG: & Albert Museum in London. Yes, and it’s interesting Gilbert & George mentioned Oscar JA: Wilde. When I do think of suiting, Oscar Wilde’s chocolate velvet suit stands out, and the V&A just recently acquired it. George, you’re very right. Other than lapels and the waist, the suit has had really only subtle changes throughout the last hundred years. We always want to stand out and blend in at the same GEORGE: time. There’s also an enormous practicality to suits: you are hardly ever searched at airports, and you can get a table at any restaurant in the world. It was very important that from the beginning we GILBERT: were not making the art. We were the art.
Could you say that wearing your “Sunday best” has allowed PG: you to get away with murder? Oh we do! We still do get away with murder, yes. We GILBERT: were able to hide in a big and fantastic way. Dressed like this we can do whatever we want. The GEORGE: city suit is the modern version of the Norman Knight. It’s male armor, yes? Yes! I always think the inside of a suit is so fascinating. I JA: am particularly attracted to the chest’s canvas: the sponginess and the horse hair. There’s something about the materials that, when put together, become this strange-like membrane.
IT WAS VERY IMPORTANT that FROM the BEGINNING WE WERE NOT MAKING the ART. We WERE THE ART. —GILBERT