When I told people that I was going to paint the big room magenta, many people thought that I was crazy.

I had my exhibition of paintings first in Shanghai, and then recently in Wuhan. Wuhan particularly interested me, because I am 1/8 Chinese.

In the studio, it took me a long time to work out how to make paintings that had the intensity that I was able to create by painting whole rooms. There is a very limited number of colours but there are many variations. I decided to use the purest palette that I could.

If I did not love the things that I do, how could I spend my life doing this? You have to invest what you spend your life doing with pleasure.

There was something really wonderful about being able to feel confident about doing my first exhibition in China, that people would have no trouble recognising the images and understanding my work. I also have a lot of freedom in the way I use colour, and I think that kind of freedom in colour is also understandable in every culture.

Sometimes we look at a work of art and we immediately think that it is German art, but with some we don't, it's not so obvious.

As an artist you are free to use any image, any style, any idea from any culture and any period of history.