About the Work
After making 'Carte Blanche' I decided to make something round instead of square. One day I was hitchhiking home to Nottinghamshire. On the way I stopped at a Berni Inn out of curiosity. This was the latest thing. Berni Inns were an early example of 'commercial cosiness'. This concept, imported from America, is now so much part of our culture that we no longer notice it, but in 1967 it was strange and exciting.
I walked up to the bar on which I found a glossy brochure. It was a menu. Inside were photographs of meals and a thing called an 'Irish coffee'. Because of what it looked like, I imagined an innocent country parson walking into this vulgar place and unwittingly ordering one. On return to Wolverhampton I started making 'The Drunken Clergyman'. When it was finished, I filled it with an appropriate liquid so that it made slurping noises when I pushed it. In a car paint shop I had it sprayed black and white, giving it a slick commercial finish.
'The Drunken Clergyman' is the only work I retained from my days as a student in Wolverhampton.
″I still use the same approach to my work: I get an idea, think of the title and then make the work. So not much has changed since 1964″
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