If you’ve seen a dapper-looking pensioner chewing gum in a newsagents, then you may have witnessed the latest hit in a spate of crime.
The man is called Gilbert and he has been buying the gum to distract shop-keepers while his partner, George, steals the newspaper bill from outside.
But these men are not your everyday criminals. They are Turner Prize-winning artists. Their theft of 3,712 newspaper bills from all over London was for London Pictures, an exhibition they call “a faithful portrait of the city over the past six years”, now on display at the White Cube gallery in Hoxton Square.
Gilbert and George have displayed the bills in groups according to subject matter. The screaming headlines have been superimposed on a background featuring the troublesome twosome dressed in their trademark suits. Each piece has a picture of the Queen displayed in one corner, and in every image she looks different, because – as George says – “each Queen is individual”.
The words, “murder”, “sex”, and “killed” loom large throughout London Pictures, part grim portrait of the capital, part reflection of media hysteria.
The artists believe the bills reflect a society in which we are all complicit. Gilbert explains: “It is quite extraordinary that you have this slogan, this poster every single day and everybody just moves on. The next day it’s another one. This is life standing still.”
But, Gilbert adds, it is also a celebration because there are many countries where you can’t have posters like this. It’s a sign of freedom of the press.
Most of the bills have been sourced from the duo’s Shoreditch stomping ground, the area around the Fournier Street building where they have lived and shared a studio for 40 years.
According to George, “nothing happens in the world that doesn’t happen in the East End.”
London Pictures is on display at the White Cube galleries in Bermondsey, Hoxton and Mason’s Yard until 12 May – entry is free but purchasing a piece from the collection will set you back £50,000-£250,000.
