An Interview with Lucy Skaer of Henry VIII’s Wives

This interview took place on January 26, 2012 over Skype. I, Brianne Cohen, posed a series of questions to Lucy Skaer about three of Henry VIIIs’s Wives’ artworks presented in this volume of Contemporaneity – Spiral Betty (2004), Mr. Hysteria (2005), and The Returning Officer (2009) – in order to draw out thematic connections not only among the art collective’s moving-image installations, but also throughout their larger, diverse oeuvre. The six members of Henry VIII’s Wives live and work in different cities, but have collaborated and exhibited together since 1997, primarily in Europe. I am thankful to Lucy Skaer for her thoughtful answers and to Henry VIII’s Wives for permission to present their video and filmic work. The interview serves to introduce an artist portfolio containing three videos – Spiral Betty, Mr. Hysteria, and The Returning Officer – by the art collective Henry VIII’s Wives.