Berlin

It was a toss up whether I went to Berlin or New York. I'd gone to New York with Martin Naylor in 78, I think. We travelled on Freddy Lakers budget airline and he was on the plane, meeting and greeting, so we met him.

 While there I'd shown my work at the PS1 project in Queens. This was a huge old school or warehouse; youngsters worked for a year as an artist's assistant and then had a joint show at the end. I was shown Sol Lewit's area and a couple of others. There were post-grad guys from all over the world, but no Brits. No grants or Bursaries were available in Britain. I was offered a spot, open ended, whenever I could get the money.

Back at the College I heard about a Scholarship from the German Government for anywhere in Germany. I liked the idea of Germany because my Dad was stationed there during the occupation. I applied wrote a proposal for Berlin and got it. At my Degree show someone asked if I'd considered the Cambridge Fellowship, he was on the committee, rather cavalierly I turned him down, and, as he said, it wasn't there a year later, when I did apply for it.

So, I had a couple of strange months on a campus in Freiberg, learning German, passed with flying colours. I now have a certificate that states I am qualified in German to attend any primary school there.

After the course I met up with Tony Cragg in Strasbourg, we travelled to his home in Wuppertal together. Then I went on to Berlin to meet a couple of his friends who had found me a flat, two rooms one the size of a cell, six foot by ten feet, the other a tiny kitchen. I slept on the chaise lounge you can see on the left.

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