Born into an Irish working class family in 1956, Bernard McGuigan has been making sculpture since the age of 16. A past associate of the Royal Society of British Sculptors, his work has been shown at the Royal Academy, as well as private and public collections across the world. Bernard, his partner and her son Oscar moved to Kentish Town in 2000 from Archway.
When were you happiest?
After a session of therapeutic massage.
Where would you like to live?
Exactly where we live now: in a charming, modern low energy courtyard house in KT. Or a cottage in the north Cotswolds village of Blockley. Beautiful.
What is your favourite sound?
Hugh Barnett’s Blues Harmonica Class at WMC Crowndale Road.
What is your greatest life achievement?
Being a widely collected, self-taught sculptor.
Follow your heart and the rest will fall into place.
What is your earliest memory of the area?
Watching the millennium fireworks from Parliament Hill with my partner and her family.
What makes you unhappy?
No longer being represented by a London gallery.
What simple thing would improve your quality of life?
Ed Milliband moving out of Dartmouth Park Road and into 10 Downing Street.
What is your most unappealing habit?
Watching crap television instead of reading a good book.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Sitting on Hampstead Heath – midweek on a sunny summer day – when I should be at my studio working.
Where do you hang out?
The Place (contemporary dance); La Rosella (dinner); Wellcome Institute (amazing exhibitions, lectures); The Wine Cellar Portuguese Deli (custard tarts); The Green Note (jazz, blues); Map Cafe; and The Pineapple.
The era of art babble. Radical Autonomy? Spatial Reflex? Does anyone really understand this peculiar art dialect?
What’s been your best experience in the area?
Fran Nixon’s yoga class at HNCC.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
Looking older than I am (57); going grey at 30 didn’t help.
What’s the worst thing anyone’s said to you?
Hey look! That man has only got one thumb.
Tell us a secret.
I’ve only got one thumb.
What is your favourite dish and why?
Cottage Pie, because I named a little house I once owned after one.
What did you do today?
9.30 am yoga class, long sunny walk along the canal from Camden to Victoria Park and then onto my studio in Hackney Wick, to start a new piece of sculpture.
What has your career taught you?
Search your soul and exercise your limbic brain for the work you need to make. Your art may be wildly out of fashion, but honesty and integrity is all.
Find out more about Bernard on his website here
