Hackney Gazette Andres Serrano interview The American photographer Andres Serrano has just flown in from New York to see The Unbearable Lightness of Being - the Yvon Lambert gallery's current survey of his work in Hoxton Square. When he settles down to speak to me he tells of his periodic fear of flying. In fact, he missed his own retrospective at the Barbican back in 2001 because of this phobia but has since convinced himself that he has "to bite the bullet and fly sometimes". Revealing such fears seems strange coming from a chap who has been brave enough to take photographs of dead people in a morgue, bodily fluids and the Ku Klux Klan, all to be found in the Yvon Lambert show. His latest series concerns the only subject he once said he would steer clear of - fecal matter. But here it is in all its glory and, as with all his work, the result is strangely beautiful - images that are larger-than-life and saturated in celestial colour. The photographs, which include waste produced by himself and dung from a puma and a lion - procured from an Ecuadorian zoo no less - look as if they are monumental landscapes. "I did once say I look forward to the day when I do work that makes even me uncomfortable," he says with a glint in his puppy-dog eyes. Serrano seems to revel in making things difficult for himself and as an artist of Afro-Cuban descent his portraits of Ku Klux Klan are certainly no exception. "Because I am not white that's why it's a challenge for me to work with the Klan," he says, "and an even bigger challenge was for them to work with me." When I enquire how he managed to persuade them to pose he throws back the kind of ballsy response you'd expect from a born and bred New Yorker: "I asked them!" Giving gallery wall-space to the KKK may seem perverse but for Serrano it's part of a wider aim to make pictures of "people who are sort of invisible." His Nomads (1990) series was taken around the same time and are noble portraits of homeless people whom he clearly felt an attachment to. "I like to work with themes that I feel a connection with. I've never been homeless but many years ago I was on drugs and I sold drugs, so I spent a lot of time on the street." After escaping his druggy existence he became an artist and in 1989 he was thrown into the public eye when he exhibited the hugely contentious Piss Christ. This featured a miniature plastic crucifix submerged in his own urine sparking a huge public debate over the National Endowment for the Arts' funding of 'obscene' art. "I stood my ground and never apologised for anything" he says of that period. Thus Serrano has unapologetically continued to develop an extremely interesting body of work that has been exhibited in solo shows across America and Europe. And, not surprisingly, his work continues to send some folk into a state of apoplexy 20 years on from its controversial beginnings. Most recently a neo-Nazi group vandalised his History of Sex series in Sweden. But he remains nonchalant about the incident. "One lesson to be learned from that is that you can't destroy my work, if you destroy we'll just print some more pictures and it will just come back," he says smiling defiantly. He may not be too concerned about his detractors but he does seek approval from the special people in his life. Before he leaves he tells me with obvious pride that his therapist in New York has an Andres Serrano book on their office coffee-table. He then rushes off to embark on a journey from Hoxton to Cornwall before tomorrow's shoot with Alexander McQueen. He plans to photograph the famous East End-born fashion designer on a medieval chair that can only be found 200 miles away in the West Country. This is an artist who undoubtedly likes to make things hard for himself and is all the better for it. The Unbearable Lightness of Being is on at Yvon Lambert, 20 Hoxton Square, until March 28		Next article >