Artist and satirist Miriam Elia’s hilarious book We Go To The Gallery has been so successful after two print runs of limited artist editions that due to public demand Miriam has decided to publish a consumer-friendly version of the book, due for release on 21st September 2015.
We Go To The Gallery is the first in a planned series of books by Miriam Elia and her brother Ezra Elia. It is a satirical take on the classic 1960s Ladybird reading scheme books featuring Peter and Jane – who will henceforth be known as John and Susan.
The book follows siblings John and Susan on a trip to the gallery with mummy, who explains the works they see. We talked to Miriam about the book, collaborating and art…
Funny Women: What inspired your book We go to the Gallery?
Miriam Elia: Both my parents are visual artists, so I spent a great deal of my childhood being taken to galleries every weekend. On every trip I would get a running commentary from my parents, but I have to admit I got terribly bored.
I’m also an avid collector of 50’sand 60s paraphernalia- ladybird books, postcards, stamps, dinky toys, Hancock records. Something about the era fixates me.
In some ways, I think the book is a collision course between the generation my baby-boomer parents were born into the modernist era, and the cynicism of everything that came after punk.
FW: In ‘We go to the Gallery’ are you sending up Ladybird books or artists such as Koons, Emin and Creed?
ME: My brother always taught me that good satire aims at absolutely everything at once.
The book mocks everything from the wholesome optimism of the 60s ladybird books, to the relentless artistic cynicism of leading present day artists. My fixation with conceptual art is a complicated one- I both loathe it and love it. It’s not so much the idea that expression can be anything, everything and off the canvas. It’s more the content of what is being communicated that I’m questioning. ‘We go to the gallery’ is ambivalent in that it functions as piece of conceptual art, yet it simultaneously mocks conceptual art.
FW: You collaborated with you brother, Ezra Elia for this book. Do you enjoy collaborating?
ME: Yes, we work extremely well together. We have a finely tuned sense of humour that we’ve nurtured since childhood. Ezra is not visual, so I do the artistic side- illustrations, concepts and design, but the writing is the sharpest point. The most satisfying part was being able to condense everything we felt about contemporary art establishment in to simple cutting lines.
FW: You write sketch comedy, graphic novels as well as make art. you see yourself primarily as an illustrator, comedian or writer?
ME: I’m an artist whose work comprises of illustration, writing, film and comedy. I worked in comedy between 2007 and 2010, but decided to leave because I stopped judging the work I made by the parameters of ‘is it funny?’ Visual art can be more enigmatic, but I never lost the satirical edge.
FW: Have you any more plans for John and Susan?
ME: Yes, Ezra recently moved to Sheffield, so we’ve been working up there quite a bit.. The next book is underway, and ‘John and Susan’ (formally Peter and Jane for copyright reasons) will be off on another adventure with their mother soon. It should be finished by early 2016.
We Go To The Gallery is available to buy on 21st September.
