Cinematographer Doyle focuses on his artistic side

One day, when he was a wild Australian boy of 13, Christopher Doyle found his parents' marriage certificate. From the date, he worked out that he was illegitimate - a mistake, as he always likes to put it, conceived in the back of a Holden sedan on Bondi Beach. "My mother went nuts but I was so happy when I found it," he says. "I ran around the house saying, 'You f***ed up too! You f***ed up too!' It was liberating."

In the intervening years Doyle, now 61, hasn't lost his larrikin language so prepare yourself for a blizzard of asterisks. When, for instance, Life of Pi won this year's Oscar for cinematography, he publicly described the decision as "a f***ing insult to cinematography" and "a total f***ing piece of s***". As Doyle is a cinematographer, probably best known for his work with Wong Kar-wai on Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love and 2046, you might assume that's the noisy raspberry of sour grapes.

You would be wrong. Doyle may be opinionated but he's not mean-spirited. His point is that Life of Pi was filmed against a blue screen with pretty much everything added in afterwards. Where's the passion, the life, in that?

This interview, however, isn't with Doyle-the-cinematographer but with Doyle-the-artist: he likes to wear two hats (and two personalities, of which more later) and has a show on at the Agnes b. gallery in Central, entitled "I Didn't Come Here And I Ain't Leaving".

At the opening night, he wore a striped blazer with the collar turned up, long shorts that ended just below the knee and half-laced boots; as he's a slight man, and was also sporting a sort of wispy beard, the effect was of an Amish leprechaun on its first day at school, clutching a beer. He looked mildly manic, which is normal Doyle; also ill at ease, which is less so.

"I was terrified last night," he says, the following morning. "I don't know what to say to these people from the art world." He makes a helpless gesture. "It is what it is."