Once a year, at the weekend closest to the Spring Equinox, Gimpo - best known to KLF watchers as the man who filmed the money burning - drives around the M25 for 25 hours. His aim is to do this for 25 years.
He's done 17 years so far.
This week I was interviewed by Bristol filmmakers Dominic Wade and Rob Wickings, who are making a documentary called End Point of a Circle about this mighty endeavour. There's an early taste of it here, but it won't be finished for another eight years, after the 25th M25 Spin. (A 25-minute version should appear at the Portobello Film Festival at the end of August, and include interviews with Iain Sinclair and Bill Drummond.)
Gimpo's M25 spin and Iain Sinclair's later book London Orbital were influences which fed into my book The Brandy of the Damned, in a which three people drive around the coast of Britain in a van for confused and uncertain reasons. Their most logical argument for embarking on the journey is that all the good quests have been done, but it is still better to undertake a stupid quest than no quest at all. I still think there is a lot of truth in that.
Gimpo's argument is that what he is doing is art. Normally this sets alarm bells ringing for me and reminds me of Julian Cope's perennial advice: "Never fall for the art trip!" But I have no trouble seeing what Gimpo is doing as art. It's outsider art, of course, but it's still a damn sight more interesting than anything Damien Hirst will ever do.
Here's why I say that: Driving around the M25 is shit. Sure, it's a necessary evil, but it's a grim, unpleasant way to spend hours of your life. It is part of most peoples lives, certainly in the south of this country. For that reason it should be a valid subject for artists to do something with, but making something transcendent out of M25 traffic seems to be beyond them. The only way to do so is through the sheer pigheaded determination of Gimpo, who committed to spending 25 years of his life on this project. This heroic dedication to seeing a commitment through to the end is noble and very human, and for me elevates the whole endeavour.
25 years is a long time. There's lots of things you could achieve in that time, so you have to assume that a nagging voice of doubt occasionally gets in Gimpo's ear and suggests that there are better things he could be doing with his life. Yet he keeps going.
I have total faith in him, I feel certain that he will see it though to the end. Gimpo is an ex-squaddie who served in the Falklands, and I like to think that he's still out on patrol, year in and year out, circling London and protecting it in his own way. I trust in him because I want to trust in people, and by sticking to his commitment he is showing that people can be trusted. This is, I think, a far more valuable and rewarding reaction than anything I have ever got from a Damien Hirst.
More power to him, long may he roll. Rather him than me, of course, but it's good to know that as the years pass he is still out there seeing it through. If he wants to call what he is doing art, then that's good enough for me. Here's a film of this year's spin:
More details at gimpogimpo.com
He's done 17 years so far.
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| Gimpo - photo by Iron Man Records |
This week I was interviewed by Bristol filmmakers Dominic Wade and Rob Wickings, who are making a documentary called End Point of a Circle about this mighty endeavour. There's an early taste of it here, but it won't be finished for another eight years, after the 25th M25 Spin. (A 25-minute version should appear at the Portobello Film Festival at the end of August, and include interviews with Iain Sinclair and Bill Drummond.)
 |
| Dennis the Cat not happy that Rob and Dom filmed the interview in his garden. |
Gimpo's M25 spin and Iain Sinclair's later book London Orbital were influences which fed into my book The Brandy of the Damned, in a which three people drive around the coast of Britain in a van for confused and uncertain reasons. Their most logical argument for embarking on the journey is that all the good quests have been done, but it is still better to undertake a stupid quest than no quest at all. I still think there is a lot of truth in that.
Gimpo's argument is that what he is doing is art. Normally this sets alarm bells ringing for me and reminds me of Julian Cope's perennial advice: "Never fall for the art trip!" But I have no trouble seeing what Gimpo is doing as art. It's outsider art, of course, but it's still a damn sight more interesting than anything Damien Hirst will ever do.
Here's why I say that: Driving around the M25 is shit. Sure, it's a necessary evil, but it's a grim, unpleasant way to spend hours of your life. It is part of most peoples lives, certainly in the south of this country. For that reason it should be a valid subject for artists to do something with, but making something transcendent out of M25 traffic seems to be beyond them. The only way to do so is through the sheer pigheaded determination of Gimpo, who committed to spending 25 years of his life on this project. This heroic dedication to seeing a commitment through to the end is noble and very human, and for me elevates the whole endeavour.
25 years is a long time. There's lots of things you could achieve in that time, so you have to assume that a nagging voice of doubt occasionally gets in Gimpo's ear and suggests that there are better things he could be doing with his life. Yet he keeps going.
I have total faith in him, I feel certain that he will see it though to the end. Gimpo is an ex-squaddie who served in the Falklands, and I like to think that he's still out on patrol, year in and year out, circling London and protecting it in his own way. I trust in him because I want to trust in people, and by sticking to his commitment he is showing that people can be trusted. This is, I think, a far more valuable and rewarding reaction than anything I have ever got from a Damien Hirst.
More power to him, long may he roll. Rather him than me, of course, but it's good to know that as the years pass he is still out there seeing it through. If he wants to call what he is doing art, then that's good enough for me. Here's a film of this year's spin:
More details at gimpogimpo.com
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