Interview with Bob & Roberta Smith

Tell us about the huge new piece, 'This Artist is Deeply Dangerous'.
'Beaconsfield's main space used to be for teaching children to read and write [formerly as the Lambeth Ragged School], so I've placed just one big text work up at the front. It's a painting of an exhibition review written by The Guardian's tennis writer, who was commissioned to swap places with their arts correspondent. The style of sports writing is shifting and moving, building up to a crescendo, whereas art is usually a very still thing.'

What made you want to paint it?
'The honesty and straightforwardness in the way he writes reminded me of my first artistic discovery of a show of Max Beckmann at the Whitechapel. I was 16 and at secondary school in Wandsworth and there was suddenly this sense of art being exciting and expansive. This is the first time I've ever painted someone else's text, but all my work is about writing. I'll paint a piece like “Make Art Not War” and people may think it's naff, annoying, or that there's nothing else going on underneath, but I don't mind being a bit combative.'

What did you make of another Guardian writer's comment that, 'We don't care if Bob & Roberta Smith is remembered as a significant artist'?
'I'm not interested in attacking anyone, so I replied that all the best artists are women anyway. Once I hit the age of 45, I passed the point of trying to persuade others to like my work.'

What's lurking in the basement?
'Upstairs is minimal, but downstairs is chaotic. It's essentially a ramshackle, welcome-to-my-world type of show. I made far too much work last year and now I'm burdened with this accumulation of stuff that I can't junk and lots of large pieces which I don't have homes for, almost like I've built this completely dysfunctional snail shell on my back.'

What will happen to it all after 'Factory Outlet' finishes?
'I'm buying a building in Ramsgate to make my own version of a Kurt Schwitters “Merzbau” environment - a really bonkers museum to me. It will seem mad and stupid to some but should be funny. I like making a fool out of myself.'