In the fairy tale the painting represents the here and now. The book is actually divided into five sections, through which the key character, the muse, leads us.

If we listen human instinct actually tells us what we need, but advertising makes us want things we don't need and things we can't have.

I think most artists find it difficult to part with their work but it's the parting that keeps us alive and keeps us working. In the case of the chariot, although it's been sold I actually still have it, just in another form.

Practical! On Wednesday afternoons I could be practically anything. What's up?

The dog, the rabbit and the hoop all feature in the painting, and take the place of the orrery.

I took lots of photographs and had planned to write a treatise on how it worked, but I quickly got bored with that idea and wrote a scientific fairy tale instead.

The hoop is there to remind us not to jump through it, not to submit to someone else's control.