Believe Me, I Know Best

In his teens the artist worked as a salesman in an outfitter's shop in Glasgow, which stimulated his interest in ideas of control, management and exploitation. He explores these themes through his art whether painting, performance, film or street theatre, looking especially at the relationship between people and their animals: as pets, as producers of food, and as entertainers. The physical and mental struggle which pet animals have with their owners is depicted in this painting, a battle of wits over a ball, and is intended as a comment on the oppressor and the oppressed. Its flatness of form and the red, white, blue and black colour scheme echo advertising hoardings and reflect Wilson's allegiances to the Pop Art movement.