208 GQ.COM.AU SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

I

“It still doesn’t calculate for me, all of this. I’ve

come in on this strange wild card from Brisbane,

my parents are working class and had nothing to

do with art.

My grandma was a painter but never sold

one in her life – I picked up the trade from her,

I guess. She did landscapes, mainly, but I’ve got

this one of hers that she did of Will Smith – she

cut him out of the newspaper at 84 and painted

him. I was I like, ‘do you know who that is –

that’s the Fresh Prince’. And she looked at

me and was like, ‘that’s a very attractive young

man’ and she gave it to me for my birthday – it’s

one of my favourites.

I never knew what painting entailed – I just

knew that I liked it and I pursued it. I was always

fed scrap paper and would just draw and play with

jigsaws or build Gameboy consoles out of wood

and imagine the actual games – that’s how hard

up we were. And I was bored, and a way to relieve

my boredom was to create.

At 10 I was crushing boxes at the local chemist

and I did all the shit jobs, I went through the

butchers and packing shelves and delivering

BELOW: THIS PIECE REFERENCES THAT TRAGIC

DAY LUNA PARK BURNED TO THE GROUND AND IS

A PART OF AN ONGOING SERIES OF WORK WHICH

IS BASED ON ‘THE HORNED MAN OF LUNA PARK’.

JUNE 30, 2017.

THE FOLLOWING IS FROM

A CONVERSATION WITH ANTHONY

LISTER OVER A FEW BEERS IN HIS

STUDIO AND HOME IN SYDNEY’S

DARLINGHURST. HE’D JUST

RETURNED FROM SHOWING

IN LISBON WITH TIME SPENT

PAINTING THE STREETS OF

BARCELONA. HIS YOUNGEST

DAUGHTER, POPPY, PLAYS ABOUT

IN THE OPEN, WHITE-WASHED

SPACE. LISTER IS GENTLE IN

MANNER AND SPEECH. HE IS

ENGAGED AND ARTICULATE.

THESE ARE HIS WORDS.