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If you could live with just one work of art, what would it be?
If I could have a desert alongside my artwork, I’d choose Walter de Maria’s The Lightning Field (1977). Having it in my own desert garden would give me more chance of seeing lightning strike. If the scale is limited to my London flat, I’d pick one of Lee Miller’s Surrealist solarised prints, which I saw recently at her retrospective at Tate Britain.
Which cultural experience changed the way you see the world?
Visiting Egypt aged eight left a lasting mark. It was the most adventurous family trip we ever took, and I will never forget the steep descent down into the Great Pyramid of Giza. As a teenager, I vividly remember seeing the Gilles Peress photographs of Bloody Sunday. Growing up in a rural context outside Dublin in the 1990s, I was pretty insulated from the Troubles, so it was a very strange feeling to be discovering a history that was right on my doorstep.
Which writer or poet do you return to the most?
Recently, I worked with Yto Barrada on her current South London Gallery show Thrill, Fill and Spill, and I have returned to her book recommendation On the Necessity of Gardening: An ABC of Art, Botany and Cultivation, by Maria Barnas.
What are you listening to?
Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works is my go-to when I have to focus. I need to get better at discovering new music as many of my favourites haven’t changed since my 20s—Joanna Newsom, P.J. Harvey, Joy Division, TV On The Radio, Sufjan Stevens—but I’ve recently being following Sudan Archives.
What are you watching, listening to or following that you would recommend?
I love the Empire podcast. I also recently rewatched An Cailín Ciúin (2022), a haunting film with extraordinary cinematography.
What is art for?
One thing I love about working with artists is how uniquely they see the world. Sometimes their brains are just wired differently, and they imagine realities that others can’t. Leonora Carrington expressed it better than I ever could: “There are things that are not sayable. That’s why we have art.”
• Yto Barrada: Thrill, Fill and Spill, South London Gallery, until 11 January 2026
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