Episode 109 Billy Chainsaw

Billy Chainsaw is an artist whose work uses a mix of pulp and the arcane to engage with ideas of mortality, magic and sensuality. Working with paints, screen prints, photographs and decals, Billy has developed a personal collection of imagery and gestural approaches which are recognizable yet seemingly open to infinite interpretations too. Billy cites the beat author William S. Burroughs as his "ghost muse". Like Burroughs, Chainsaw's art represents a collision of the matter of fact and the fantastical, the elemental and the quotidian, the highbrow and the lowbrow. Billy's work has been exhibited in many galleries including the Saatchi Gallery in London, and the Fleetwood Gallery in San Francisco. For many years he was also a film critic and cultural commentator, writing for publications such as Empire, Bizarre and Kerrang!