POP DUO Charlotte and Philip Colbert’s work is bold, thought-provoking and performative. Caiti Grove meets the inventive pop art pair in their studio Art director NICOLE SMALLWOOD Photographer NICKY EMMERSON
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ast year, the Royal Academy invited the Colberts to an artists’ lunch. After all, they are a young, fun, creative couple with the kind of fresh, striking work the distinguished members appreciate. One problem: they were double-booked. So what did they do? Just not turn up? Ghost London’s most prestigious art institution? ‘We sent impersonators,’ confesses Charlotte, laughing. ‘We told them: “Whatever happens, don’t talk. Just do things like we do – pose for photographs, mime impersonations. As long as you don’t say anything, we’ll be fine.” ’ The ruse worked. ‘They just thought we were really in character,’ adds Philip. ‘Talking was always going to be a disappointment anyway – and they were none the wiser.’ This is entirely in keeping with the Colberts’ irreverent style of art, which embraces the absurd, with more than a touch of cheeky parody of the art world’s traditions. On their first trip abroad while courting nine years ago, they made a pilgrimage to Friedrich Nietzsche’s house in Switzerland. ‘That was my attempt to try and err…’, Philip says in his light Scottish lilt of his seduction technique, a tiny golden pendant of Fallopian tubes hanging around his neck, ‘We looked for his toenails between the floor boards.’
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