I started my BA in Fine Art at Reading University in 1987 and I remember there were a few postgrad students who were allowed to use the studios at night and they gave me the keys so that I could make copies and also use the studios at night.

I used to paint and not think much about what and why I did things but I used to chat with one of the postgrads, I can’t remember his name, I think he was called David and, it’s really annoying, I can’t remember his name but I remember seeing his name a few years later and noticing that he was quite a successful artist.

Anyway, during those evening he talked theory, I must admit that I didn’t understand much but was fascinated by the Derridas, Baudrillard, Lyotard, Deleuze, Roland Barthes (OK I had read him), and Foucault. I wanted to learn but I tried to read some texts but couldn’t really understand anything. I did read some texts by Umberto Eco other than the name of the rose, like Travels in Hyperreality and other semiotic texts which I sort of understood.

These cleverer artists were giving the tutors a hard time lecturing them about post-structuralists etc.

In 2005/2006 I did an MA in Fine Arts at Chelsea and now the generation who were students when I did my BA were the lecturers and the texts we were being taught were the same ones David tried to tell me about all those years before. And even though Foucault was one of my favourites, I designed this t-shirt.

I AM STILL ALIVE

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