An artist should avoid falling in love with another artist – at least according to Marina Abramović, who in the 1970s gave us her great manifesto for life and art. “We have that quote on our stairs,” says Idris Khan, smiling, when I catch up with him and his wife, Annie Morris, after a walk-through of their absorbing new exhibition at Newlands House in Petworth, West Sussex. “We should have included it in the show,” she adds. He makes haunting composite images of words and music. She makes rainbow totems and tapestries. This is the first time they’ve officially collaborated.
We’re in a pub down the road, the couple sitting side by side across the table from me, visibly relieved that the prep is over and excited for the opening. Throughout our conversation, they bounce off one another, overlapping, reminiscing, gently teasing. The artists – who met in 2007, moved in together after a month, were engaged after five and have, they say, spent 24 hours a day with each other ever since – have flagrantly broken Abramović’s rule. (They’d probably call it guidance.)
