Blanket
(Picture: Gilbert & George)Art, life and London have been bound into a single package for Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore for 55 years now. The two became a couple as students at St Martins in 1967, started renting a flat in Spitalfields’ Fournier Street in 1968 (eventually going on to acquire the whole house, another one two doors down and a huge studio connecting them at the back), and first incarnated themselves as ‘living sculptures’ Gilbert & George in 1969.
The subject matter of their award-winning, lucrative and often scatological work since then has been their own image — either in their trademark suits or naked — and their immediate urban milieu. ‘If an alien spaceship had 10 minutes to film a typical planet Earth place, where should they go?’ says Plymouth-born George, who turned 80 on 8 Jan, in his vicarish tones. ‘Paris, New York, Zurich, Sydney? None of those would be typical modern places. Here, Liverpool Street Station, Brick Lane, it’s completely up to date.’
