THC: Was there ever a conscious decision to become an artist?
CP: I think so. I first went to London when I was 15 or 16 with my art teacher. I went around all the galleries and thought "Wow, this is amazing." It just blew me away and I decided to become an artist. I wanted to exhibit at the Tate...which I have now done. It's just fantastic to have that idea when you're 15. But it seems like an almost useless thing to do, it would seem to be just for people to look at, and be great treats for people's imaginations. But I think it is a good thing to be doing with my life. Sometimes I wish I was a writer or a musician because that's much more immediate, especially for somebody who can sing or has a beautiful voice. Nobody ever worries about what a piece of music means or why they wrote it. Usually they're allowing it to play on their senses and their encounter with the music. While I think contemporary art, especially in England, is treated very suspiciously.
THC: What has been your most rewarding project?
CP: I think my blown-up garden shed was one of my favorites. Also, a piece I did in collaboration with the actress Tilda Swinton called The Maybe, which I really enjoyed. It was very unique because you are working someone else, having someone who was alive, actually part of the show, who's there as a presence. She is also a pretty famous actress. She became part of a reliquary, she became the only living thing in it. Surrounded by all these relics of dead people, you suddenly became very aware of your own mortality. Everybody was dead, except for Tilda and you. And she, somehow, was absent too, because she was asleep. I think people were very confronted with themselves more than anything.
THC: It seems like chance and luck often come into your work, like the time that church was struck by lightning four days after you arrived in San Antonio. I don't know, do you feel God is on your side?
CP: I'm not religious. It's when you're looking for things. Say you're looking for yellow cars--then you start to see yellow cars everywhere. You just kind of focus and suddenly everything starts pointing in that direction. When you get that focus, then those connections come to you. I think you make your own luck. Sometimes nothing seems to gel, because I haven't got my antennae out. And other times, ideas come thick and fast.
THC: What feather are you looking for next?
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