Do not return this to me as I do not want it back. is a post on The Hickensian

Finally, my favourite artist David Shrigley has relaunched his site. For too long now, he had displayed a ‘coming soon’ placeholder, and like a petulant child asking “are we there yet?”, I kept checking for signs of life.

I first came across his work in the 1998 Redstone Diary. These infamous diaries are coveted possessions of print designers, lovingly constructed and guaranteed to be a talking point at meetings. Amongst the pages were these strange child-like scrawls. Long hand-written pieces about being scared of technology (but needing a space crew all the same), and the kind of doodles and ruler-created shapes that could be found on exercise books. Its the sort of art that’s bound to create kneejerk “My 10 year old could do that” reactions. That misses the point, and especially the humour.

Later that year he released the book ‘Why we got the sack from the museum”, including tear-out postcards with messages such as “I’m sorry I painted ‘Twat’ on your garage door”. Then I started noticing his photographs in Scottish art galleries (he currently lives in Glasgow), and became hooked.

His work spans drawings, scuplture, photography, even music video’s (Blur’s recent video for ‘Good Song’). One commission had him construct a sequence of fake film certificates for films such as The man with the beady eyes. I remember seeing this sequence in the cinema – everyone in the cinema got the joke.

I can’t really put my finger on why I’m such a fan, but he does cheer me up like no other artist. He can also confuse, disgust and bewilder at the same time. Its his little world, and I’m happy to just watch him.