“Often my subjects may be well-known figures. However, I prefer to rely on visual cues, rather than depicting the figures as themselves. With the works Great British Smile, Wake up Rod, and Alles Ist Schwindel I had Margaret Thatcher in mind. Here the visual clues are the shape of the hair, the shoulder-pad-shaped body and the pearl necklace. The story I had at the back of my mind when painting a couple of these was of Thatcher’s statue being decapitated by vandals. Her legacy is an interesting one as she seems to polarize opinion. Some see her as a successful reformer, while others see a power-hungry dominatrix.”