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March 19, 2007

My door is a Whore

I can’t believe it.  Creative Review  have just given away a sticker that they said had been designed by Peter Saville the famous Factory designer who was responsible for all The Joy Division and New Order albums.

Here's the sticker:

Petersavillestickersmall_3 

Above it it says : PETER SAVILLE. As seen in Soho 2006.

Inside it says the sticker was inspired by a sign that Saville had spotted on a door in London’s Soho.

That fucking door happens to belong to me.

Savilledoor1_2 

Don’t believe everything you read. I put the sign on my door a few years ago because I actually used to run a brothel out of here since you ask. I stopped two years ago. I got robbed and people kept kicking the door in. I have to say it all got a bit out of control - even for my liking.

So I determined to turn my brothel into a home. I had the sign made to keep prospective punters away and also as a kind of Dadaist piece. Since it went up all kinds of people have come to stare at it and take pictures of it. It is most galling. I have been upstaged by my own front door.

One of those people was clearly Mr Savile

In the Creative Review there is an interview with Mr Savile.

"Graphic design is for others to others. It's the handwriting on the letter, not the content of the letter itself.”

"the consumer environment in which we now exist has no morals at all."

And on his Adidas collaboration :

"They've become standard, gratuitous practise, motivated by expediency rather than any kind of belief. One the one hand you have some huge brand with money but no credibility; one the other you have a designer who has credibility to spare but no money and they are brought together by a PR agency in a marriage of convenience. There is no heart there.”

And lastly :

"When someone says they've designed something, there is a suggestion of enhancement, or improvement as opposed to mere decoration. To me, inherent in design - even now - is an element of truth. Your work is personal. If you lose that sense of identity, then design just becomes a mechanical process. You have to preserve a feeling of value in what you are doing. As a designer, you can't sell your soul, because what else have you got?"

Well.

I decided to write.

Dear Mr Savile,

On the sticker you gave away THIS IS NOT A BROTHEL THERE ARE NO PROSTITUTES AT THIS ADDRESS above it appears the name Peter Saville.

This is not the truth. I designed the sign not you. I had it made. I put it on my door. The design is by Sebastian Horsley not Peter Saville. I am the handwriting on the letter and the content of the letter itself.

To you adidas may well be the capitalist monster but as far as I am concerned you are the same monster to me in this case.

I have very little money. The sign is an artwork. My artwork. It is personal. It is part of my identity. Not yours. You have not enhanced or improved anything. You have merely taken something of mine and claimed it as your own.

Is this the element of truth you talk of?

Or is this a mechanical process?

You have taken a sense of value away from me and yet you talk of not selling your soul?

This is the equivalent of me taking a Joy Division album cover for my exhibition and putting the name Sebastian Horsley over it with "As seen in a record shop."

How would you feel about that? My door maybe a whore. It is photographed more often than me (and gives a better interview) but it is not however, a thief. My door and I are united on this. We have our standards. They may be low, but we have them.

Yours sincerely,

Sebastian Horsley.

I never got a reply. Funny that.

People piss and vomit on my doorstep most evenings. Some mornings there is even human faeces. Personally I think the law is far too laxative on people who defecate on my doorstep. But Mr Savile really takes the biscuit. You are not welcome here again Sir. This is a respectable disorderly house - only gentlemen.

 

Posted at 05:12 PM |

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