Wood & Harrison, Artists

“You will have really terrible ideas on a daily basis. Every artist does.”

Picture credit - John Wood & Paul Harrison

John Wood and Paul Harrison are two artistic heroes of mine. They make work that is both simple and complex, profound and mundane. It’s always engaging, often funny and, as you’ll hear, has occasionally ended in disaster.

Look on the Tate Modern website and you’ll see them described as ‘an art world Laurel and Hardy’ - and it’s their ability to create entrancing short videos that has now led to them becoming, in this their 30th year together, a TikTok phenomenon. Although exactly how this happened, or indeed what it even means, they’re not entirely sure.

In our conversation they reveal the secrets of a long term working relationship. We talk about what makes a good idea. And a bad one too. And they tell me about two classic mistakes they made early on in their career.

Peter Andre is a fan. As are large swathes of the Japanese population. Maybe after you hear them talk you’ll become one too – if, of course, you’re not already.