Recently I visited the Chicago studio of Industry of the Ordinary, a collaborative duo comprising artists Mat Wilson and Adam Brooks. A few years ago I reviewed their big show at the Chicago Cultural Center for Hyperallergic ( link here ). Rereading that review, I think I did a not-bad job of capturing in a condensed piece of writing what their work is about. When I spoke to them yesterday, I tried to get a sense of their histories, both personal and artistic, in a conversation that lasted well over an hour. Adam Brooks (l) and Mat Wilson (r). Photo: Philip Hartigan Rather than try and describe the conversation sequentially, I'm just going to provide bullet points of the main topics: Being British in America : Wilson was born in the UK and has lived in the USA for more than 20 years, Brooks is a US citizen who spent his formative years in England. I'm also an Englishman who's lived in the US for 14 years. Would any of us return to live in England? Does the English c...
Artist Philip Hartigan talks about art, interviews other artists, and more