:00:00. > :00:07.We?re artists, we love Folk Art and we?re going to look in this
:00:08. > :00:16.And folk art I suppose might be described
:00:17. > :00:20.as art or things that look like art that's made by people that wouldn?t
:00:21. > :00:27.A bit like myself and a bit like I would describe you.
:00:28. > :00:30.This is how the art world sees itself
:00:31. > :00:44.the folk art made in the world and within that, there's a very
:00:45. > :00:52.Which is actually a very, very small percentage of what is actually made.
:00:53. > :00:56.We're going to places where folk art thrives.
:00:57. > :01:03.To see the most beautiful, naughty and bizarre pieces of art.
:01:04. > :01:14.And to chat to some of the people who make them.
:01:15. > :01:22.But first we're here in London where one small corner of the art world
:01:23. > :01:27.Somewhere round here is Tate Britain and they've got an exhibition
:01:28. > :01:43.British folk art and we're going to have a look at it.
:01:44. > :01:50.This is a very spectacular way to start a show.
:01:51. > :01:58.It's like you're setting your stall out.
:01:59. > :02:03.Almost literally cos they're all trade signs, aren't they?
:02:04. > :02:07.But this looks like a sculpture exhibition and they are sculptures
:02:08. > :02:11.but they have a purpose is their only difference between what you'd
:02:12. > :02:18.see in a gallery normally, they?ve got some function and the function
:02:19. > :02:21.is to help people that can't read find out where they left
:02:22. > :02:28.Kind of more fun as a signmaker in those days.
:02:29. > :02:30.You get to make some different shaped things.
:02:31. > :02:33.Yeah, and also anything that's bigger or smaller than it should be
:02:34. > :02:37.It's just amusing for some reason, scale.
:02:38. > :02:43.Again there's a purpose for that scale of
:02:44. > :02:48.which I'm sure you're aware, so you could see it from a long way off.
:02:49. > :02:50.But I'm just thinking about if there's competitiveness
:02:51. > :02:55.I mean you get an idea there probably was.
:02:56. > :02:58.That lock and that lock, they?re quite different, aren't they?
:02:59. > :03:15.This would have been a very common experience 150 years ago.
:03:16. > :03:18.To us it's really spectacular but actually every street in every city
:03:19. > :03:21.would have had very many of these things hanging up above your head.
:03:22. > :03:23.And everybody would have gone about their business completely
:03:24. > :03:26.ignoring them but add a couple of hundred years and suddenly they
:03:27. > :03:30.I think that people assume that folk art has died out or these things
:03:31. > :03:35.don't exist anymore but things like this do exist
:03:36. > :03:40.I don't think human nature changes but maybe the form
:03:41. > :03:44.They're still advertising and over sized objects and brightly
:03:45. > :03:47.lit objects that try to get your attention and graphics that are
:03:48. > :03:50.trying to get your attention as well that we see every day and we don't
:03:51. > :03:53.really take them in as much but there are still things
:03:54. > :03:56.We're off to Blackpool, perhaps the spiritual home
:03:57. > :04:00.We're just going to wonder about looking
:04:01. > :04:09.for things that we like the look of, that make us laugh basically.
:04:10. > :04:14.Lots of towns and villages have got, obviously, days in which
:04:15. > :04:17.the rules are relaxed, people can misbehave and the brilliant thing
:04:18. > :04:24.about Blackpool, as you know, is that actually every day is May Day.
:04:25. > :04:39.It's not just what people create that we're interested in
:04:40. > :04:42.but what they do - rituals, festivals and performances are
:04:43. > :05:06.Treasure - fake cigarettes and a wobbly pencil.
:05:07. > :05:08.He's working class, he won't use a brolly, you?re
:05:09. > :05:11.so tough, you should take your jacket off and go topless, Alan.
:05:12. > :05:25.They're basically like Warhols, aren't they?
:05:26. > :05:30.But I think for me that's what artists do.
:05:31. > :05:32.They take something from popular culture
:05:33. > :05:37.It's no different from what's going on here.
:05:38. > :05:41.Basically it's a straight forward connection to
:05:42. > :05:48.So when people lament that there's no
:05:49. > :05:53.more things made like in that show, well it's just not the case, is it?
:05:54. > :05:58.Signs like this would make me want to eat a hot dog.
:05:59. > :06:09.It's polished, who says you can't polish a turd?
:06:10. > :06:16.What's implied by this is bad behaviour as well.
:06:17. > :06:24.The potential for mischief and mucking around.
:06:25. > :06:29.Even just seeing the word bum outside, I thought that was quite
:06:30. > :06:32.funny, bums and willies and boobs, I know it's pretty pathetic really
:06:33. > :06:38.You see the masks and the moustaches and you instantly imagine people
:06:39. > :06:43.It's sort of performative, it's about performance and making
:06:44. > :06:47.an idiot of yourself which a lot of folk art has within it.
:06:48. > :07:06.Actually, it's not true because some terrorists you can't negotiate with.
:07:07. > :07:08.It's government policy not to negotiate with terrorists.
:07:09. > :07:11.Whereas I think the government would try and negotiate with my wife.
:07:12. > :07:14.I suppose that thing about political incorrectness comes
:07:15. > :07:24.And it's appealing, isn't it, in this day and age to have stuff
:07:25. > :07:36.It's quite unexpected as a theme to have.
:07:37. > :07:39.Obviously it's supposed to be worn by an oversize guy that t-shirt.
:07:40. > :07:48.That's the kind of thing that if you did it in a contemporary art
:07:49. > :07:52.context, in a gallery or something you'd be lucky to get away with it
:07:53. > :07:56.It's like public art, t-shirt becomes almost a public art work.
:07:57. > :07:58.For us as artists, it's really interesting to see stuff
:07:59. > :08:01.that we recognize as having played with culture but not being made by
:08:02. > :08:06.people who are not self consciously attempting to manipulate culture.
:08:07. > :08:10.It's a challenge, it's a visual challenge to
:08:11. > :08:12.an artist to make something that's as arresting and as attractive
:08:13. > :08:17.as what you might see here and also shocking like that t-shirt.
:08:18. > :08:19.It's definitely something I hadn't thought about before,
:08:20. > :08:25.Also, in the context of a t-shirt, on a body.
:08:26. > :08:38.It's actually quite sophisticated in its crudeness.
:08:39. > :08:41.For three months each year the town is transformed by
:08:42. > :08:50.the Blackpool Illuminations, a vast light display along the seafront.
:08:51. > :08:54.They're not on just now but this is where they're kept off-season.
:08:55. > :08:59.So, Richard, this where the illuminations are designed,
:09:00. > :09:02.manufactured, stored, tested everything.
:09:03. > :09:09.finish, from a blank piece of paper to what you see now, starts here.
:09:10. > :09:12.I think one of the beauties of the illuminations is you can get away
:09:13. > :09:15.with anything cause there's six miles of it, plenty of scope so we
:09:16. > :09:18.try and keep some traditional old illuminations and we have some that
:09:19. > :09:21.are 25, 30-years-old still going in the lights.
:09:22. > :09:23.Something new and then something odd or bizarre.
:09:24. > :09:33.It's probably a bit like Blackpool itself, old, new, traditional but
:09:34. > :09:35.actually very ? seaside towns are basically traditional, then there's
:09:36. > :09:38.always the bizarre, we've seen quite a lot of bizarre stuff today.
:09:39. > :09:41.What is the oddest idea that's been really successful?
:09:42. > :09:44.We've had gigantic cans of soda pop with arms and legs.
:09:45. > :09:46.We had pies that had smiley faces, one was riding
:09:47. > :09:58.This year we're doing, based on the slinky idea, gigantic
:09:59. > :10:01.cows backsides and cow's heads and horses backsides and horses heads
:10:02. > :10:04.and I can't image seeing that in any other town other than Blackpool
:10:05. > :10:18.Hotelier will looks out, "There's a cow's backside 30 feet
:10:19. > :10:21.in the air 12 feet across outside my hotel", yeah, so what?
:10:22. > :10:23.Next year it?ll be something different.
:10:24. > :10:26.I think we do that sort of thing and we get away with murder here,
:10:27. > :10:31.Yeah, I think that's a real mark of Blackpool, isn't it?
:10:32. > :10:34.One of the things about Blackpool that constantly appeals to me is
:10:35. > :10:36.that they accommodate things that you wouldn't expect.
:10:37. > :10:40.And an environment like that is really necessary for interesting
:10:41. > :10:42.things to happen because when things are controlled it's harder
:10:43. > :10:50.for things that are interesting, out of the normal to be pulled off.
:10:51. > :10:55.And also, Britain is still a slightly repressed country.
:10:56. > :10:58.We're so still living in the Victorian age.
:10:59. > :11:01.In a way this is a kick back against Victorian mores, a kick back
:11:02. > :11:04.against all that repression and that's got to be good.
:11:05. > :11:21.There's actually a lot of stuff telling you what you can't do.
:11:22. > :11:34.All of these works have text in or are texts themselves
:11:35. > :11:37.but a lot are paintings with text on them and it's as if what's being
:11:38. > :11:44.I quite like these ones where a story is being told.
:11:45. > :11:54.It's like the thing that they'd have at the end of
:11:55. > :11:57.the news every night of some funny things that happens with an animal
:11:58. > :12:04.We still have that hunger for those sorts of stories.
:12:05. > :12:07.And these funny pigs, they look like sausages already.
:12:08. > :12:10.What I really like is the guy underneath is credited with
:12:11. > :12:13.both breeding and feeding, bred and fed by George Moreland.
:12:14. > :12:17.But I think it's a lot to do with pride in who these
:12:18. > :12:23.I suspect people think in 20 years time, 50, 100 years time no-one's
:12:24. > :12:27.going to know who owned those pigs and it's important to know who owned
:12:28. > :12:30.those pigs and they won this prize and so it's to keep the story alive
:12:31. > :12:35.probably thinking ahead not just for present times but for the future.
:12:36. > :12:39.Normally there wouldn't be text on a picture so there's
:12:40. > :12:58.a difference between folk art and more traditionally considered art.
:12:59. > :13:08.My artwork is largely inspired by the crazy zeal of folk artists.
:13:09. > :13:13.The great thing about what it is, I suppose, is that it's
:13:14. > :13:20.a very direct communication with the public, isn't it?
:13:21. > :13:22.All those artists, they actually don't need galleries and curators
:13:23. > :13:26.and all that stuff, it is very attractive, the absolute, direct
:13:27. > :13:31.assertion the folk artist has, or the signwriter has, writing Boots on
:13:32. > :13:42.a shop that sells boots, has with the world outside.
:13:43. > :13:50.it's indebted to this kind of work, would you say?
:13:51. > :13:54.It comes from my fascination with railway signage, actually, big kid,
:13:55. > :13:57.and trains, and the Great Western Railway and things like that.
:13:58. > :14:09.So this directness that you're talking about employing with your
:14:10. > :14:18.work, the directness that language and signs can bring you has allowed
:14:19. > :14:21.you to make direct statements, noticeably about politics, often?
:14:22. > :14:28.There's an aspect of folk art that I really do respond to, which is
:14:29. > :14:31.propaganda. The crazy, mad campaigning of the folk artist. The
:14:32. > :14:37.folk artist is trying to tell you about the Bible or try and sell you
:14:38. > :14:46.stuff or try and convince you of his or her political ideals. They create
:14:47. > :14:50.all these crazy, mad artefacts and that is tapping into some sort of
:14:51. > :14:55.larger narrative about human beings that we all want to tell each other
:14:56. > :15:00.the stories of how we live our lives and sometimes we need some
:15:01. > :15:11.amazingly, brightly-coloured objects to help us do that.
:15:12. > :15:18.From Great Yarmouth. Took them a year to do. I can't quite believe
:15:19. > :15:24.that looking at this. This is incredible. They obviously didn't
:15:25. > :15:27.have jobs. It's like Google images, but stitched. You could spend
:15:28. > :15:32.quarter of an hour looking at this. There's so much to look at. They
:15:33. > :15:36.were just about to get married. They put their energies into doing this.
:15:37. > :15:42.All the sexual Yeah, there's frustration. A lot of frustration in
:15:43. > :15:54.this work. That's a rather beautiful thing. Yes, bone cockrell, made of
:15:55. > :15:58.wood, metal and bone. By ate French POW. Obviously passing his time
:15:59. > :16:02.making bone feathers. If you're a Prisoner of War, you have no idea
:16:03. > :16:06.how long you're going to be in prison for, do you? It depends how
:16:07. > :16:10.long the war's going on for. If you have all this time on your hands,
:16:11. > :16:16.you end up making something very intricate. I suppose, a lot of folk
:16:17. > :16:20.art is about the passing of time, hence of hyperdetail, trying to take
:16:21. > :16:22.control of something by doing something in great detail, almost
:16:23. > :16:40.recreating it. We're at the Koestler Trust. It's an
:16:41. > :16:47.organisation that does exhibitions and events about art made in
:16:48. > :16:54.prisons. They have an annual prize. We're lucky to be asked to judge one
:16:55. > :16:58.of the categories. Today we're judging portraits. Wow, look at
:16:59. > :17:06.that. That's amazing. That could be in the National Portrait Gallery. I
:17:07. > :17:08.always like these ones. Memories of the Commonwealth institute,
:17:09. > :17:13.Kensington High Street London. I was told off for putting on one of the
:17:14. > :17:23.display masks. Prison officer. He's an angry man, that one. The title is
:17:24. > :17:29.very good, Buy your Doors. That's really what he looks like. It's a
:17:30. > :17:33.wooden picture. People might find it surprising that prison art is full
:17:34. > :17:39.of humour and wit. And a lot TV is funny. There's the other end of the
:17:40. > :17:44.spell trum as well. Some of the drawings are incredibly sad.
:17:45. > :17:50.Inevitably a lot of the work is about prison life. And the day to
:17:51. > :17:54.day, but also fancy versions of prison life. The act of drawing is a
:17:55. > :17:59.form of escape. If you're drawing something like this... Or something
:18:00. > :18:03.laborious and intensement You get into it and forget where you are,
:18:04. > :18:06.and probably forget about time. I think the other thing that's
:18:07. > :18:13.striking is there's a lot of people in prison that can really draw.
:18:14. > :18:18.Yeah. There's too much to look This year at. We have the most entries
:18:19. > :18:23.ever. We have over 8,000 pieces of work. Some are poems. Some are
:18:24. > :18:29.pieces of music. But most are paints or drawings or models. What's the
:18:30. > :18:34.motivation for making art in prison, as opposed to making art outside
:18:35. > :18:37.prison? They are literally sitting there with nothing else to do in the
:18:38. > :18:41.evenings. In the afternoon, you can pick up a pencil to write a poem or
:18:42. > :18:45.draw. That is something you get something out of. Also, it's
:18:46. > :18:49.obviously a difficult time in your life. Your family relationships are
:18:50. > :18:54.going to become strained. You're trying to think about how you got
:18:55. > :19:00.there. A lot of people use the arts to explore who they are, what's
:19:01. > :19:05.happened to themselves. Some of the work is about freedom, lions,
:19:06. > :19:10.tigers, you see some pieces which are self-exploratory. That's
:19:11. > :19:17.amazing, look at that. I know. That's like a ship in a bottle. He's
:19:18. > :19:22.managed to do a sculpture inside. This is the room of match stick When
:19:23. > :19:30.you models. Think about art made while incarcerated, the match stick
:19:31. > :19:35.is a ubiquitous material. A demonstration model of valve gear as
:19:36. > :19:38.fitted to railway steam locomotives. As with many things that might be
:19:39. > :19:42.called folk art, they take a lot of time to make. They can be incredibly
:19:43. > :19:47.intricate. The match stick sculptures are things that emphasise
:19:48. > :19:52.the process of producing these things and the amount of time that
:19:53. > :20:01.process takes. That specific one was done in my cell. I was doing stuff
:20:02. > :20:08.like that. These are very different. Almost caricatures. I often think,
:20:09. > :20:12.when I do this kind of stuff, I'm creating like a personality or
:20:13. > :20:16.something. Because I used to have them on my cell wall. They were
:20:17. > :20:23.quite comforting to a group of people in there that I knew. What
:20:24. > :20:30.happens when you're in prisons, prison officers want to see you
:20:31. > :20:33.doing something, you know, with loads of art work, everybody see
:20:34. > :20:38.that's you're doing something. They can see that you're not just sitting
:20:39. > :20:43.in your cell. Watching telly. Basically, yeah. Though I did a lot
:20:44. > :20:47.of that. I'm glad to hear it! You are banged up and you're stuck in
:20:48. > :20:53.there. That's it. You can't do nothing. But whilst being in there
:20:54. > :21:07.and having that time, it enabled me to focus. I had a lot of time on my
:21:08. > :21:17.hands. That's impressive, isn't it? That's beautiful. That colour is a
:21:18. > :21:20.really nice colour. Yeah. There's something irresistible about rooms
:21:21. > :21:24.full of human forms. There's something very attractive about
:21:25. > :21:28.polychrome sculpture. You have to remember that most sculpture was
:21:29. > :21:35.painted like this, even higher art in churches. And Roman marble. Greek
:21:36. > :21:43.statues. It's the beautiful. Classic ones, half woman or half man. Rchl
:21:44. > :21:48.it's the clag -- It's the person, half of it. And maybe with one or
:21:49. > :21:51.two breasts. Preferably two! I went to see the Cutty Sark for the first
:21:52. > :21:57.time when I was five or six. They had a row of these topless women
:21:58. > :22:02.basically, lovingly painted. Figure heads. I thought it was pretty cool.
:22:03. > :22:06.These women on the front were basically, they became
:22:07. > :22:09.personifications of the boat. It's like customising your vehicle. They
:22:10. > :22:16.looked to me like lucky charms. I don't know - They're a superstitious
:22:17. > :22:21.bunch. It's like a St Christopher, or the equivalent, but painly women.
:22:22. > :22:30.Even now, people have little St Christophers in their cars or on
:22:31. > :22:34.motorbikes. We keep this tradition. We're going to see Stuart Hughes.
:22:35. > :22:43.Who is a painter and lives on this street. He paints lots of things for
:22:44. > :22:49.bikers. He modifies, what do you call it? Customises. Customises
:22:50. > :22:54.motorbike s. We're big fans of his work. We've known him for years now.
:22:55. > :23:02.It's amazing what he can get up to in that little room. It's a lot
:23:03. > :23:09.about fantasy. It's fantastical scenes and so on. Stuart, this is
:23:10. > :23:14.where the magic happens. If you say so. I do. We love your work. We awe
:23:15. > :23:18.years ago. -- We saw it years ago. We saw an image somewhere of this
:23:19. > :23:27.and we thought - we need to find out who made this and there it is. Yeah,
:23:28. > :23:34.that's it. Can you get it down? Yeah. Still as good. It is amazing.
:23:35. > :23:41.Put it on. No, you put it on. It fits. Makes you look better. I'm a
:23:42. > :23:47.bit thin, aren't I? It does suit you. Why is that? The eyes. I'll
:23:48. > :23:53.head-butt you. This was painted for a guy called Al. He works in a
:23:54. > :23:56.hospital, running the neurosurgical unit, the chief technician there.
:23:57. > :24:00.When he came around he said the helmet had to be anatomically
:24:01. > :24:04.correct because he would be taking it into work and the surgeons would
:24:05. > :24:11.see it and they'd be looking at it and go "Oh, you have too many
:24:12. > :24:15.teeth", or whatever. He took it in apparently. They loved it.
:24:16. > :24:20.What do you think about the work you make? Is it folk art or popular art?
:24:21. > :24:24.It's just paintings. The customer gets in touch and says, "Can you
:24:25. > :24:28.paint this? I paint it. That makes it slightly different from a regular
:24:29. > :24:31.gallery art work, doesn't it? The fact that it's slightly
:24:32. > :24:35.collaborative. Yeah, that's the important thing to me. If somebody
:24:36. > :24:41.wants to call it art, that's fine. I don't see it as art. I see it as
:24:42. > :24:45.just a - me having fun painting an the customer getting what they
:24:46. > :24:50.wanted. I see it similar to the figure heads on the front of boats,
:24:51. > :24:54.often with the imagery of women or monsters and fantasy. I think when
:24:55. > :25:05.people decorate their bikes they're within that tradition.
:25:06. > :25:12.I've always had a bike. I can escape on it. You have the drudgery of work
:25:13. > :25:22.and home and all the rest of it. The bike is freedom. You get on it and
:25:23. > :25:28.you're gone. It's a great feeling to ride a decent-looking bicycle that's
:25:29. > :25:32.different to everybody else's. I guess everybody likes to stand out
:25:33. > :25:41.in the crowd. People say, "Oh, I really like your bike." That makes
:25:42. > :25:46.you feel good. What does it mean to have paintings
:25:47. > :25:50.on your bike? As opposed to a normal bike? Every one of these bikes is
:25:51. > :25:56.special to the individual for various different reasons. The
:25:57. > :26:02.stories behind the bike and iconography and imagery means a lot.
:26:03. > :26:06.In 2010 my wife passed away. I bought the bike shortly afterwards.
:26:07. > :26:11.I wanted to make sure that she always road with me. I've had her
:26:12. > :26:15.image painted on the bike. So it's more than just decoration. Far more.
:26:16. > :26:20.Every time I'm out on that bike, I look down and I see her looking back
:26:21. > :26:24.at me and I know she's always with me protecting me on the road. In the
:26:25. > :26:28.biker communities, you'll rarely find any two bikes that are even
:26:29. > :26:32.similar, even as soon as you get it out of the shop you're changing it
:26:33. > :26:36.on the way home. We've gone to extremes with art work and bikes
:26:37. > :26:41.completely built from the ground up. Every biker I know, in some way,
:26:42. > :26:46.customises his ride, or her ride even. Do you see these bikes as art
:26:47. > :26:53.works? Where is the art in the bike, for you? Bikes can be like art work.
:26:54. > :26:57.I would happily go to a gallery and look at bikes. At rallies, we go to
:26:58. > :27:00.the motorcycle park and look at bikes and steal ideas from each
:27:01. > :27:12.other and things develop and move on. It's almost a way of life,
:27:13. > :27:16.really. All human life is here, more or less. Life, death an everything
:27:17. > :27:20.in between. I think what's important for me is you definitely think about
:27:21. > :27:26.the context in which it was made, who the people were, why they were
:27:27. > :27:33.doing it, how they did it, which is a very important part of it. It's
:27:34. > :27:36.quite a traditional take, but even a traditional take on folk art is
:27:37. > :27:42.incredible, bizarre and surprising. There's nothing wrong with that.
:27:43. > :27:47.I think it would be sad if people come to this exhibition and think
:27:48. > :27:51.that where the exhibition stops, folk art stopped. Because really,
:27:52. > :27:54.this energy, this creative energy has been going on every day since
:27:55. > :27:58.the last piece of work was made and will go on forever. It's just about
:27:59. > :28:05.people making stuff that's interesting, visually interesting.
:28:06. > :28:10.It's very positive about what it is to be human and make things and to
:28:11. > :28:16.be alive and to be interested in the world around you and to be creative.