GORDON Cheung is sitting comfortably in, arguably, the most unusual art space in Britain.

The Chinese Arts Centre is built for artists, not for art. No wonder Cheung's smiling.

'It's a great space,' he says. 'I mean, the studio is better than my studio. It's got under-floor heating, lovely lighting systems, nice clean walls.'

Breathe

Room to breathe. And 'Breathe' is the centre's aptly titled residency scheme.

It's not just unusual, it's downright unique: selected artists live on site with a sleeping area, washroom and, naturally, an artist's studio.

'I roll out of bed and I'm in the studio,' Cheung continues. 'There's a kitchen next door, a resource centre, computer facilities.

All of that stuff is important to my practice because I do use computers a lot. So to have it immediately accessible does accelerate the development of my work.'

Cheung was born in London and went to St. Martin's College between 1994 and 1998.

He took a year out, won a studio award and then took his Masters at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 2001. As well as being in numerous shows, he has also worked as an independent curator.

He's clearly no underachiever: 'The last show I put together involved 170 artists, and I've had residencies before in Pakistan and Japan.'

As regards his work itself, Cheung explains that he initially set out to be a painter who paints without paint. And - instead of art nonsense - that's a pretty decent summary.

'I use the Financial Times stock listings as my main material. I use Photoshop to collage together images and then I print them on top of the FT, adding rainbows and waterfalls.' Why add these symbols?

'I'm interested in hallucinatory spaces. The stock market is this place people are chasing after. Like the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. So I want this 'delirious' aspect to the work.'

Cheung uses the pinkish print of the FT well. With it, he builds up figurative backdrops for fairly complex arrangements of images.

The imagery is often recognisable slices of popular culture like film stills from Planet of the Apes.

Such images draw you into what first seem like landscape 'paintings'. Up close, the FT is recognisable.

And that implodes everything within the frame, shifting meaning and confusing high and low culture (the world of international finance; the world of cut 'n' paste art).

This is truly art you can spend time with. Shame, then, that Cheung's residency must soon come to an end.

Gordon Cheung's studio is open to the public 20-31 May at the Chinese Arts Centre.

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