Hilarious Turner Prize winner talks about balls and more in exclusive event at Harrogate's Mercer Gallery

The likable Yorkshire-born but Glaswegian-raised international artist showed what a skilled singer and comedian he is in a special event to mark the final day of The Artists Room: Martin Creed exhibition.

Harrogate’s historic, publicly-owned gallery has been utterly transformed by its first-ever installation show, drawn from a national collection of Creed’s diverse work owned by The Tate and National Galleries of Scotland.

After delighting the audience like a surrealist Jonathan Richman influenced by Ivor Cutler, the playful Creed told reporter Graham Chalmers, although his artwork was designed to entertain, it was the result of much thought and preparation, whether that was Work No. 227: The lights going on and off or Work No. 370 Balls made up of 900 balls, works whose content is the same as the title.

"Once I had found 30 balls it got difficult to find any more that weren’t the same. That took a lot of research!

"I like creating art that is open to changing that isn’t closed and dead.”

As for his rise to fame on the fringes of the Young British Artists movement of the 1990s, Creed said but it had never been quite him.

"I knew Tracey Emin a bit and Gary Hume but I never felt part of it all.

"It did mean people round the world were interested in British art, including mine.”