View source for Joe Machine

{{Short description|English artist and poet (born 1973)}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Joe Machine
| image         = Photo of Joe Machine by Charles Thomson.jpg
| caption       = Joe Machine (circa 2008)
| birth_name    = Joseph Stokes
| birth_date    = {{birth date and age|1973|4|6|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Chatham, Medway|Chatham]], [[Kent]], [[England]]
| nationality   = British
| occupation    = Painter, poet
| field         = [[Painting]]
| training      = No formal training
| movement      = [[Stuckism]]
| works         = ''My Grandfather Will Fight You'', ''Sea Shanty''
| patrons       =
| influenced by =
| influenced    =
| awards        =
}}
'''Joe Machine''' (born Joseph Stokes,<ref name="buck">Buckman, David (2006), ''Dictionary of Artists in Britain since 1945''. p. 1018. ''[[Art Dictionaries]]''. [[Bristol]]. {{ISBN|0-9532609-5-X}}.</ref> 6 April 1973) is an [[England|English]] painter and poet. He is a founding member of the [[Stuckism|Stuckists]] art group.<ref name="Milner90">Milner, Frank ed. (2004). ''The Stuckists Punk Victorian''. p. 90. [[National Museums Liverpool]]. {{ISBN|1-902700-27-9}}.</ref>

==Life==
Joseph Machine was born in [[Chatham, Medway|Chatham]], [[Kent]], and comes from a [[Romani people|Romani]] background on the [[Isle of Sheppey]].

[[File:Joe Machine, Diana Dors with an Axe.jpg|thumb|left|Joe Machine. ''Diana Dors with an Axe'']]
In 1988, Machine was sent to Alston House Approved School, [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]], for the theft of scrap material, and the following year to a [[Dover]] [[borstal]] for young offenders, after burgling a greengrocers in [[Leysdown]] (Isle of Sheppey).<ref name=Milner90/> He spent time claiming benefits and running the family business, an amusement arcade in Leysdown, as well as breeding [[Rottweiler]] dogs and working as a bouncer in South London night clubs.<ref name=Milner90/>

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."<ref name=Milner90/>

In 1999, he was one of the thirteen original founder members of the [[Stuckism|Stuckists]], an anti-[[conceptual art|conceptual-art]] group, co-founded by [[Billy Childish]] and [[Charles Thomson (artist)|Charles Thomson]]. His painting ''Diana Dors with an Axe'' (after actress [[Diana Dors]]) 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".<ref>[http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/stuckists/ "The Stuckists Punk Victorian"], [[Walker Art Gallery]], [[National Museums Liverpool]]. Retrieved 29 March 2008.</ref> Reviewing the Walker show, [[Mark Lawson]] 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.<ref>Lawson, Mark (17 September 2004). [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/frontrow/frontrow_20040917.shtml "Liverpool Biennial"]. [[BBC Radio 4]] ''[[Front Row (radio programme)|Front Row]]''. . Retrieved 29 March 2008.</ref><ref>[http://www.stuckism.com/machine/IndexText.html "Joe Machine: Biography"], stuckism.com. Retrieved 29 March 2008.</ref>

[[File:2005 Saatchi Gallery demo.jpg|thumb|Joe Machine (third from left) in a protest at the [[Saatchi Gallery]], 2005.]]
In January 2005, he took part in a [[Stuckist demonstrations|Stuckist protest]] at the launch of the ''Triumph of Painting'' show at the [[Saatchi Gallery]] in London. 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 (paintings)|The Upper Room]]'' and demand the resignation of the Tate director, Sir [[Nicholas Serota]].<ref>[http://www.stuckism.com/Tate/Tate05.html "Turner Prize demo"], stuckism.com. Retrieved 6 April 2008.</ref><ref name=shed>[http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/shed-wins-58000-art-prize/2005/12/06/1133631231483.html "Shed Wins $58,000 Art Prize"]. ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]''. 6 December 2005. Retrieved 6 April 2008.</ref>

Machine was one of the ten leading Stuckist artists to show in the ''[[Go West (exhibition)|Go West]]'' exhibition at the [[Spectrum London]] gallery in October 2006,<ref>[https://archive.today/20120911141354/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Slideshow/slideshowContentFrameFragXL.jhtml?xml=/arts/slideshows/gowest/pixgowest.xml&site= "Go West"]. ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''. Retrieved 29 March 2008.</ref> where six of his paintings sold in advance of the show opening.<ref>Gleadell, Colin (3 October 2006). [https://web.archive.org/web/20070311054646/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/10/03/bamkt03.xml "Market news: Roger Hilton's child-like drawings, 'stuckist' paintings and Edward Seago"]. ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''. Retrieved 29 March 2008.</ref>

Machine commented on the Stuckists: "some of the paintings are not all that marvellous ... But everyone's painting and getting involved".<ref>O'Keeffe, Alice (11 December 2005). [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/dec/11/arts.artsnews1 "How ageing art punks got stuck into Tate's Serota"], ''[[The Observer]]''. Retrieved 29 March 2008.</ref> 

Artist and musician [[Billy Childish]] owns a Machine painting of a woman slashing her wrists, which he describes as "quite disturbing".<ref>Kinnes, Sally (3 December 2006). [https://web.archive.org/web/20110517092316/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article653584.ece "What's over Your Mantelpiece?"]. ''[[The Sunday Times]]''. Retrieved 29 March 2008.</ref>

Machine sang with the "junk" group, The Dirty Numbers, and has published six poetry books.<ref name=buck/>

In 2003, Machine married Charlotte Gavin,<ref name=Milner90/> who has exhibited her work in Stuckist shows.

==Art==
[[File:Joe Machine, My Grandfather Will Fight You.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Joe Machine. ''My Grandfather Will Fight You''.]]

Machine's work is strongly autobiographical and often draws on life experiences of sex and violence. Machine works with a limited range of mostly five colours (which Machine claims was initially due to poverty), and has cited his grandfather, who used to paint, as a major influence.<ref name=Milner90/>

Recurrent images are emaciated women, sailors and bloodshed. He has shown fighting dogs and a sailor having his throat slit . Other images are actresses [[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, painted on two wooden boards nailed together.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Joe Machine, Diana Dors with a Machine Gun.jpg|''Diana Dors with a Machine Gun''
Image:Joe Machine, Ute Lempe.jpg|''Ute Lempe''
Image:Joe Machine, My Mother's Last Cigarette.jpg|''My Mother's Last Cigarette''
Image:Joe Machine, Sailor on a Sea of Sex.jpg|''Sailor on a Sea of Sex''
Image:Joe Machine, Sex Crime Variation 2.jpg|''Sex Crime Variation 2''
Image:Joe Machine, Oral Sex.jpg|''Oral Sex''
Image:Joe Machine, Two Girlies.jpg|''Two Girlies''
Image:Joe Machine, Until the Last Dog Is Hung.jpg|''Until the Last Dog Is Hung''
</gallery>

==Notes and references==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Evans, Katherine ed.(2000), "The Stuckists", Victoria Press, {{ISBN|0-907165-27-3}}

==External links==
{{Commons|Joe Machine}}
* [http://www.stuckism.com/machine/index.html Joe Machine's paintings]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071009065402/http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.3.PAINTJOE%20MACHINE.htm Heyoka Magazine Interview (2006) and examples of work]
* [http://www.stuckism.com/machine/Grandfather(Classics).html Interview about the painting ''My Grandfather Will Fight You'']
* [http://www.stuckism.com/Videos.html#Machine Two video interviews with Joe Machine <!-- The site states "These vids have been made in conjunction with stuckism.com and are authorised to be placed on YouTube.-->]

{{Stuckism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Machine, Joe}}
[[Category:1973 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century English male artists]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English painters]]
[[Category:20th-century English poets]]
[[Category:21st-century English male artists]]
[[Category:21st-century English male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century English painters]]
[[Category:21st-century English poets]]
[[Category:Artists from Kent]]
[[Category:English contemporary artists]]
[[Category:English founders]]
[[Category:English male painters]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:English Romani people]]
[[Category:Organization founders]]
[[Category:People from Chatham, Kent]]
[[Category:Romani painters]]
[[Category:Romani people in art]]
[[Category:Romani poets]]
[[Category:Stuckism]]
[[Category:Writers from Kent]]