Roger Law, as the head of Spitting Image, was the De facto leader of the opposition party in Britain throughout the '80s. He'd previously been a rakish young Illustrator hooked up with a who's who of the '60s and '70s. He remains a force of energy, both generous with his help and his humour, who continues to make dazzling, ambitious new work.
1. What do you believe in and how has that been manifest in your work?
Drawing and modelling and not much else. They have seen me through some tight situations
& enabled me to work as an illustrator, satirist, TV director and ceramicist.
The Draughtsman's Prayer:
Our drawing, which art a haven,
Hallowed be thy line;
Thy inspiration will come;
Thy sketches will be done,
On earth and hopefully in heaven.
Give us our daily deadline.
Thy sketches will be done,
On earth and hopefully in heaven.
Give us our daily deadline.
Forgive us our plagiarisms,
As we forgive th
ose that plagiarise against us.
And lead us not into computerisation;
But deliver us from boredom.
For drawing is our lifeline, our surprise, and our delight,
But deliver us from boredom.
For drawing is our lifeline, our surprise, and our delight,
For ever and ever,
Amen.
2. What do you listen to when you work?
Radio voices so I can zone in and out as I work. I only play music when I am not having to think. I find music intrusive.
3. If you could own any work of art what would it be?
I do own artworks, contemporary Chinese brush drawings by Li Jin.
Li Jin can draw as some
people can sing. Very life enhancing work, done with great wit.
Li Jin print.
4. Who is the most interesting person you have met during your career and what was it they imparted to you?
I have been racketing around the media for over half a century and I have been lucky enough to meet many talented and interesting people.
When I was a student the illustrator Paul Hogarth
introduced me to satirical magazines,
for example L'Assiette au Beurre,
L'Assiette au Buerre pages.
which gave me direction. In the early '60s I worked for Peter Cook's night club The Establishment where I met people like Lenny Bruce. Peter Cook and I had a short-lived satirical cartoon strip in The Observer, for example "I don't go to the theatre to see plays about rape, sodomy and drug addiction, I can get all that at home?". I have been dishing up the same old shit in different guises ever since.
5. Were there moments when your career faltered or your muse disappeared and how did you overcome this?
After the closure of my satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image I found myself working for a young editor who was the grandson of an editor I worked for in the '60s. It was time for a change. So in 1998 I deported myself to Australia and I washed up at the National Art School in Sydney. I spent a year drawing and modelling and weaning myself off deadlines. You can't become uncynical but with some application you can reinvent yourself. I am now swimming through the ashes of the bridges I have burnt.
6. Do you have a motto?
"Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible" a quote by Fred Haslam, champion rabbit breeder.
7. Which piece of your work has had the most longevity and what do you think about hat piece now?
Realistically, I guess the caricature of Margaret Thatcher carving up the UK with the odd clip of Spitting Image will be my epitaph but I am a nostalgia-free zone and I am only interested and excited by the next idea.