Introducing Demelza Watts

135 artists are taking part in "Inside Job" which takes place on the 7th and 8th of April on Level 6 of Tate Modern. Over the next few weeks The Rebel Magazine will be chatting to some of the Tate staff who are showing their artwork. Today it's the turn of Demelza Watts

Q) Where did you grow up and what kind of education did you receive? I grew up in a village in Wiltshire called West Overton. I was taught quite early on in school that if you learn how to learn then you can do anything after that, so since then I’ve always been quite critical of and fascinated by education systems. I’m a big believer in creative thinking and play.

Q) How long have you been working at the Tate and what's the best show you've seen there? I’ve worked at Tate on and off in different jobs since 2012. Joan Jonas is incredible, watching Mirror Piece II performed in the tanks was one of those brilliant moments when you feel like you’ve just woken up again. Hearing an artist with over 50 years of work talking about learning and developing their practice, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Q) What can you tell me about the work you're exhibiting in the Tate Modern show? No enough is being done to preserve, construct and develop safe, accessible and affordable space in London for people to live, socialise, learn and create. My collage series ‘Living arrangements’ documents how people gather together with the resources they have, in the spaces they can access, at the times that they can. A couple of cans in the park, fish finger sandwiches on laps, Tesco meal deals sat on steps, large dinners on wallpaper tables with bring your own chair.

Q) How can people find out more about your work - do you have a website or do Instagram? My website is demelzawatts.com and my instagram is demelza.watts I also run a Public Art Research Group with Sarah Staton called pea proposals, we’ve commissioned some great texts by artists and curators on public art, peaproposals.co.uk

Q) Is there anything you have to declare / do you have a favourite quote, thought or joke you'd care to share? 'The arts are not a luxury. They are as crucial to our well-being, to our very existence, as eating and breathing. Access to them should not be restricted to a privileged few. Nor are they the playground of the intelligentsia. The arts are for everyone – and failure to include everyone diminishes us all.' Richard Attenborough

"Inside Job": An exhibition of art by Tate Staff will take place on Level 6 of the Blavatnik Building of Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern