ARTISTHelnwein

Well, I grew up in an interesting religion, called Christianity. The first art I saw as a little child were the paintings of tortured saints in the church; blood drenched, squirming people in colorful drapery, gazing towards heaven, grinning in ecstasy. The center of the worship was a man nailed onto a wooden cross, crowned with a crest of thorns piercing his head. And again, blood is dripping all over his skinny body. For 2000 years people in the western world grew up with iconography, songs and rites that glorify blood, pain and death, and God, the creator of the whole universe is allegorized as a bearded man dying in anguish. In this tradition, blood got a deeply symbolic and mystic significance and meaning. The greatest artists of the Occident have depicted blood in so many aesthetic variations in the most beautiful paintings, so that these images are now deeply imbedded in our collective subconscious memory.

"Als ich in den 1990er Jahren nach Irland kam, war es das freieste Land der westlichen Welt. Es gab nicht einmal den Ansatz irgendeinereiner Bürokratie. Es existierten überhaupt keine Formulare, die man hätte ausfüllen können, man konnte ohne Führerschein Autofahren und Künstler waren von der Steuer befreit. Ich hatte 10 Jahre lang keinen einzigen Polizisten gesehen, ich war mir gar nicht sicher, ob es soetwas hier überhaupt gibt. Das war mein Land. Ich komme nämlich sehr gut ohne Bevormundung, Überwachung und Kontrolle irgendwelcher Behörden zurecht. Die EU hat aber in den letzten Jahren dafür gesorgt, dass die Party hier vorbei ist und einige Banker haben das Land vor kurzem auch noch bankrott gemacht. Sonst ist es aber immer noch gemütlich hier."

WW: Was there any theory behind your work at this early stage? GH: No. I didn't believe in intellectual explanations or irrational conclusions. I believed in spontaneous, intuitive things like rock and roll. I felt a part of rock and roll street culture and comics. That I understood because you don't have to know theory. You only need to hear it, see it, and you know it. That's actually the power of the so-called trivial or low art. It's instant and deep, penetrating. You hear Keith Richards and what do you need to know? You feel it in your gut. That's how I painted.

The first child I collaborated with in my performances was Sandra, a six-year old girl. Her parents considered her a problem child and I think her mother had a hard time coping with Sandra’s twisted sense of humor. One time, when she confined her daughter to her bedroom as punishment for something, Sandra cut up all her mothers clothes into tiny little pieces, arranged them in a neat pile in the middle of the room and called her mom with her innocent voice. Another time she set fire to her parent’s apartment. She was one tough and mean little lady, but I liked her instantly. She had the pride of a Latino street gang leader. When she looked at you, her piercing little eyes had a very clear message: “don’t mess with me”.