Squire is a musician and painter, best known for having been the guitarist in the Stone Roses. For details of his artwork and forthcoming exhibitions, log on to: http://www.johnsquire.com
- 1 Does art make a difference? Yes, it makes me by turns depressed, nauseous and ecstatic. A new painting is life in microcosm.
- 2 Should politics and art mix? Art can’t help but be political. It supports, attacks or ignores the status quo. But art should be wary of commodifying dissent – the Prada Meinhof syndrome. The fashionable cause is a repulsive concept.
- 3 Is your work for the many or for the few? I’m painting as fast as I can.
- 4 If you were world leader, what would be your first law? I would force dentists to make those cotton-wool tubes they use during surgery less dry and more tasty.
- 5 Who would be your top advisers? David O’Doherty, Jon Stewart and John Pilger, for when all that power succeeded in making me absolutely corrupt.
- 6What, if anything, would you censor? Artificially distressed denim.
- 7 If you had to banish one public figure, who would it be? Couldn’t I banish all TV presenters? Maybe start an international exchange programme. It wouldn’t just be hilarious and cause a tremendous ratings boost – think of the bridges we could build, the levels of harmony and understanding we would reach.
- 8 What are the rules that you live by? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If that’s not working out, Mia Farrow’s line in Woody Allen’s Broadway Danny Rose, “Do unto others before they do unto you”, is a good standby.
- 9 Do you love your country? Having spent two weeks of last year in a rain-sodden Cornish tepee with three toddlers, I feel extremely proud and grateful for this country’s virtually single-handed invention of the modern world. On the other hand, I feel ashamed of our status as the world’s fourth-biggest arms dealer and outraged that we each pay around £4,600 a year in subsidies for the privilege.
- 10 Are we all doomed? Of course we are, but that knowledge of our own mortality is what makes us great.
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