Joe Machine
Encyclopedia
Joe Machine is an English
artist, poet and writer. He is a founding member of the Stuckists
art group. His work is "raw and autobiographical".
, Kent
, and comes from a Romany background on the Isle of Sheppey
. When he was six years old his teacher forbid him to draw a picture of the Incredible Hulk, so he stabbed her with a compass. Two years later he saw Diana Dors
who waved to him from a window in the Ritz
hotel in Piccadilly
. He fell in love with her, and she has been an icon in his later work.
His early life was marked by petty crime. In 1988 he was sent to Alston House Approved School, Rochester, for the theft of scrap material, and the following year to Dover Borstal
for young offenders, after burgling a greengrocers in Leysdown (Isle of Sheppey). He spent time on the dole and running the family business of an amusement arcade in Leysdown, as well as breeding Rottweiler
dogs and working as a bouncer in South London night clubs.
He started painting around 1988 and has not had any formal college art training. He has described creativity as the way out of the background in which he felt trapped: "Painting and writing have been far better for me than any of the mistakes I made in stealing and fighting."
Since 1998 he has been having psychotherapy to deal with violence and sex problems. He has said, "The violence and the stealing and the aggressive manipulation in sex — these things have been done because actually I'm quite a frightened little fucker inside — it's a byproduct of my vulnerability."
In 1999 he was one of the 13 original founder members of the Stuckists
, an anti-conceptual art group co-founded by Billy Childish
and Charles Thomson
. His painting Diana Dors With an Axe was used on the front cover of the first book on the group, The Stuckists, and also to promote the show The Real Turner Prize Show in Shoreditch in 2000.
Machine has exhibited widely with the Stuckists, most notably in their first national museum exhibition, at the Walker Art Gallery
for the 2004 Liverpool Biennial
. The exhibition, titled The Stuckists Punk Victorian
, was a definitive showing of the Stuckist oeuvre, and Machine was one of the "featured artists". Reviewing the Walker show, Mark Lawson
commented, referring to Machine's painting, Sea Shanty:
In January 2005, he took part in a Stuckist protest
at the launch of the Triumph of Painting show at the Saatchi Gallery
in London, and displayed a placard, "Stuckism in 1999 is Saatchi in 2005". In December that year he was part of the Stuckist protest outside the Turner Prize
at Tate Britain
to draw attention to the Tate's purchase of its trustee Chris Ofili
's work The Upper Room
and demand the resignation of Tate Director, Sir Nicholas Serota
.
Machine was one of the ten leading Stuckist artists to show in the Go West
at Spectrum London
gallery in October 2006, where six of his paintings sold in advance of the show opening.
Machine commented on the Stuckists: "some of the paintings are not all that marvellous ... But everyone's painting and getting involved". Billy Childish
owns a Machine painting of a woman slashing her wrists, which he describes as "quite disturbing".
Machine sang with the "junk" group, The Dirty Numbers, and has published six poetry books.
In 2003 he married Charlotte Gavin, who has exhibited her work in Stuckist shows.
His work is strongly autobiographical and often draws on life experiences of sex and violence. He works with a limited range of mostly five colors (initially due to poverty), and has cited his grandfather, who used to paint, as a major influence.
Recurrent images are emaciated women, sailors and bloodshed. He has shown fighting dogs (one lying dead) and a sailor having his throat slit . Other images are Ute Lemper
, and Diana Dors with an axe and also with a sub-machine gun. My Grandfather Will Fight You depicts a gaunt older man with clenched fists and blood-spattered shirt. It was painted on two old wooden boards which he nailed together (the join can be seen halfway up the painting). He has commented on this work:
"My grandfather was a Romany boxer, but sometimes fought bare-knuckle, which his own father did for a living. I loved my grandfather, although I was aware that other people were frightened of him. He always treated me with a great deal of love. It’s left me between two worlds – love and violence. It was definitely an emotive painting: I felt he was looking at me. In some ways he wouldn’t have been very happy about it, because he was a very private man. What I study more than anything else is the human shadow. The need to paint something until you’ve shown as much of it as you can."
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
artist, poet and writer. He is a founding member of the Stuckists
Stuckism
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
art group. His work is "raw and autobiographical".
Life
Joe Machine was born in ChathamChatham, Medway
Chatham is one of the Medway towns located within the Medway unitary authority, in North Kent, in South East England.Although the dockyard has long been closed and is now being redeveloped into a business and residential community as well as a museum featuring the famous submarine, HMS Ocelot,...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, and comes from a Romany background on the Isle of Sheppey
Isle of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England in the Thames Estuary, some to the east of London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale...
. When he was six years old his teacher forbid him to draw a picture of the Incredible Hulk, so he stabbed her with a compass. Two years later he saw Diana Dors
Diana Dors
Diana Dors was an English actress, born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, Wiltshire. Considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood, Dors described herself as: "The only sex symbol Britain has produced since Lady Godiva."-Early life:Diana Mary Fluck was born in Swindon,...
who waved to him from a window in the Ritz
Ritz Hotel
The Ritz London is a luxury 5-star hotel located in Piccadilly and overlooking Green Park in London.- History :Swiss hotelier César Ritz, former manager of the Savoy Hotel, opened the hotel on 24 May 1906...
hotel in Piccadilly
Piccadilly
Piccadilly is a major street in central London, running from Hyde Park Corner in the west to Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is completely within the city of Westminster. The street is part of the A4 road, London's second most important western artery. St...
. He fell in love with her, and she has been an icon in his later work.
Borstal
A borstal was a type of youth prison in the United Kingdom, run by the Prison Service and intended to reform seriously delinquent young people. The word is sometimes used loosely to apply to other kinds of youth institution or reformatory, such as Approved Schools and Detention Centres. The court...
for young offenders, after burgling a greengrocers in Leysdown (Isle of Sheppey). He spent time on the dole and running the family business of an amusement arcade in Leysdown, as well as breeding Rottweiler
Rottweiler
The Rottweiler is a medium to large size breed of domestic dog that originated in Rottweil, Germany. The dogs were known as "Rottweil butchers' dogs" because they were used to herd livestock and pull carts laden with butchered meat and other products to market...
dogs and working as a bouncer in South London night clubs.
He started painting around 1988 and has not had any formal college art training. He has described creativity as the way out of the background in which he felt trapped: "Painting and writing have been far better for me than any of the mistakes I made in stealing and fighting."
Since 1998 he has been having psychotherapy to deal with violence and sex problems. He has said, "The violence and the stealing and the aggressive manipulation in sex — these things have been done because actually I'm quite a frightened little fucker inside — it's a byproduct of my vulnerability."
In 1999 he was one of the 13 original founder members of the Stuckists
Stuckism
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
, an anti-conceptual art group co-founded by Billy Childish
Billy Childish
Billy Childish is an English artist, painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist...
and Charles Thomson
Charles Thomson (artist)
Charles Thomson is an English artist, painter, poet and photographer. In the early 1980s he was a member of The Medway Poets. In 1999 he named and co-founded the Stuckists art movement with Billy Childish. He has curated Stuckist shows, organised demonstrations against the Turner Prize, run an art...
. His painting Diana Dors With an Axe was used on the front cover of the first book on the group, The Stuckists, and also to promote the show The Real Turner Prize Show in Shoreditch in 2000.
Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England, outside of London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group, and is promoted as "the National Gallery of the North" because it is not a local or regional gallery but is part...
for the 2004 Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool Biennial is a British international festival of contemporary art held in Liverpool. The festival comprises the International Exhibition, the John Moores Painting Prize, the Bloomberg New Contemporaries Exhibition and the Independents Biennial....
. The exhibition, titled The Stuckists Punk Victorian
The Stuckists Punk Victorian
The Stuckists Punk Victorian was the first national gallery exhibition of Stuckist art. It was held at the Walker Art Gallery and Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool from 18 September 2004 to 20 February 2005, and was part of the 2004 Liverpool Biennial....
, was a definitive showing of the Stuckist oeuvre, and Machine was one of the "featured artists". Reviewing the Walker show, Mark Lawson
Mark Lawson
Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author.-Life and career:Born in Hendon, London, Lawson was raised in Yorkshire and is a Leeds United fan. He was educated at St Columba's College in St Albans and took a degree in English at University College London, where his lecturers...
commented, referring to Machine's painting, Sea Shanty:
- Although they set themselves against conceptual art, they're certainly not standing up for conventional painting. These are very bold and explicit images, particularly a painting over to my left, in which a sailor is taking another sailor from behind... is probably about as far as we can go in describing it. And that is an image, which is very bold, very explicit, and could lead to protests and complaints.
Stuckist demonstrations
Stuckist demonstrations since 2000 have been a key part of the Stuckist art group's activities and have succeeded in giving them a high profile both in Britain and abroad...
at the launch of the Triumph of Painting show at the Saatchi Gallery
Saatchi Gallery
The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art, opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985 in order to exhibit his collection to the public. It has occupied different premises, first in North London, then the South Bank by the River Thames and currently in Chelsea. Saatchi's collection, and...
in London, and displayed a placard, "Stuckism in 1999 is Saatchi in 2005". In December that year he was part of the Stuckist protest outside the Turner Prize
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
at Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
to draw attention to the Tate's purchase of its trustee Chris Ofili
Chris Ofili
Chris Ofili is a Turner Prize winning British painter best known for artworks referencing aspects of his Nigerian heritage, particularly his incorporation of elephant dung. He was one of the Young British Artists, and is now based in Trinidad.-Early life:Ofilli was born in Manchester. He had a...
's work The Upper Room
The Upper Room (paintings)
The Upper Room is an installation of 13 paintings of rhesus macaque monkeys by English artist Chris Ofili in a specially-designed room. It was bought by the Tate gallery in 2005 from the Victoria Miro Gallery and was the cause of a media furore after a campaign initiated by the Stuckist art group...
and demand the resignation of Tate Director, Sir Nicholas Serota
Nicholas Serota
Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota is a British art curator. Serota was director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London, and The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, before becoming director of the Tate, the United Kingdom's national gallery of modern and British art in 1988. He was awarded a knighthood in 1999. He...
.
Machine was one of the ten leading Stuckist artists to show in the Go West
Go West (exhibition)
Go West is the title of the first exhibition by Stuckist artists in a commercial London West End gallery. It was staged in Spectrum London gallery in October 2006...
at Spectrum London
Spectrum London
Spectrum London was a London art gallery which showed contemporary figurative painting, photography and sculpture. It staged Go West, the first commercial West End show of the Stuckists, and a retrospective by Sebastian Horsley...
gallery in October 2006, where six of his paintings sold in advance of the show opening.
Machine commented on the Stuckists: "some of the paintings are not all that marvellous ... But everyone's painting and getting involved". Billy Childish
Billy Childish
Billy Childish is an English artist, painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist...
owns a Machine painting of a woman slashing her wrists, which he describes as "quite disturbing".
Machine sang with the "junk" group, The Dirty Numbers, and has published six poetry books.
In 2003 he married Charlotte Gavin, who has exhibited her work in Stuckist shows.
Art
Recurrent images are emaciated women, sailors and bloodshed. He has shown fighting dogs (one lying dead) and a sailor having his throat slit . Other images are Ute Lemper
Ute Lemper
Ute Lemper is a German chanteuse and actress renowned for her interpretation of the work of Kurt Weill.- Biography :Born in Münster, Germany, Ute Lemper was raised in a Roman Catholic family. She joined the punk music group known as the Panama Drive Band at the age of 16...
, and Diana Dors with an axe and also with a sub-machine gun. My Grandfather Will Fight You depicts a gaunt older man with clenched fists and blood-spattered shirt. It was painted on two old wooden boards which he nailed together (the join can be seen halfway up the painting). He has commented on this work:
"My grandfather was a Romany boxer, but sometimes fought bare-knuckle, which his own father did for a living. I loved my grandfather, although I was aware that other people were frightened of him. He always treated me with a great deal of love. It’s left me between two worlds – love and violence. It was definitely an emotive painting: I felt he was looking at me. In some ways he wouldn’t have been very happy about it, because he was a very private man. What I study more than anything else is the human shadow. The need to paint something until you’ve shown as much of it as you can."
Further reading
- Evans, Katherine ed.(2000), "The Stuckists", Victoria Press, ISBN 0-907165-27-3