THE JAMIE REID ARCHIVE
John Marchant worked with Jamie Reid for over twenty five years and holds the responsibility for keeping the artist’s archive safe, catalogued and available for institutions, galleries and researchers.
Work in the archive covers all periods of the artist’s output, from college work through Suburban Press original drawings and print, the notorious and visceral thrill of the Sex Pistols era, the post-punk How To Become Invisible project, work with bands from the Dead Kennedys to Afro Celt Sound System, protest work for the Anti Poll Tax Alliance to Pussy Riot, his ten year cycle of installation at the Strongroom Studios in London and through to his exploration of the celestial and spiritual Eight Fold Year.
Here follows a small selection of works held in the archive. Please contact us for further enquiries.
Onwards and Upwards…
Chaos In Cancerland, 1982.
Studies in notebook…
This A4 notebook in the archive has a number of fascinating layout trials, including this one covering two principal Suburban Press era visuals. Chaos In Cancerland was a book project in preparation with Reid’s friend Jon Savage, which eventually became the Faber & Faber book Up They Rise (1987).
Untitled, 1970.
Gouache on newsprint, 185 x 290mm.
This early piece displays a raw energy that within a few years had become synonymous with both Reid and Punk. Using newsprint as a support, the paint is splattered and jabbed in a near frenzy, though the breadth of palate shows that Reid was making considered choices about placement and colour. This work was exhibited at British Library’s Breaking The Rules exhibition in 2008.
Call It Filthy Lucre, 1976.
Pen & Newsprint paper collage, 180 x 275mm.
This piece is an early example of Reid’s ransom note technique, used in response to the Daily Express’s mock outrage headline ‘Punk? Call It Filthy Lucre’ from December 3rd 1976 following The Grundy Incident. The marker pen looks brutal, but is very considered as ever. Not done for any specific purpose, this piece captures the chaotic vitality of the period.
Sex Pistols Mural, 1979-1984.
The Sex Pistols mural began life as a free-form installation of materials Reid was hanging on to - flyers, posters, contacts sheets, fabric, photographs and a bounced cheque from Malcolm McLaren - pasted directly onto the walls of the Brixton Gallery, South London for exhibition in January, 1984. Once the exhibition finished the wall panels were ripped down and removed. Later in the decade, Reid was asked by Elizabeth Sussman and Iwona Blaswick to participate in the travelling exhibition on the Situationist International, ‘On The Passage of A few People Through A Rather Brief Moment In Time’ (Centre George Pompidou, Paris; ICA, London: ICA, Boston).
The mural was framed prior to exhibition by the luminary London furniture designers Fric , featuring slogans such as Repay The Ghosts, Stop Resting On Your Assets and Relive The Future. Notoriously, the mural was once shipped to the Rock and Roll Museum in Cleveland for purchase. As soon as the panels were removed from their crates the museum directors decided the piece was too inflammatory, and the mural was promptly returned. Since then, the mural has travelled worldwide as Reid’s defining statement on the Pistols era.
“The stars were with us for a good year. It was brilliant.”
Last Days, 1972.
Lithographic gummed paper, 99 x 174mm.
This piece is one of a series of stickers produced by Suburban Press in the early 1970’s for pasting on store windows, lamp posts and letterboxes… getting the message out. Some were printed for other groups such as Wicked Messengers and King Mob (with whom Reid and college friend Malcolm McLaren targeted Selfridges one Christmas, handing out toys to kids to the confusion of the security). This particular piece was once reprinted to a 2m scale, and installed in the window of a new Japanese department store who had invited Reid to exhibit on the occasion. They were not pleased
Fuck Forever, 1979.
Printed paper collage on mount board, 304 x 204mm.
This notorious piece was originally made as a prop for The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle. It features during the Cambridge Rapist Hotel sequence with Steve Jones in his Seditionaries Mac. The central image of the model came from the front cover of a now very collectible issue of Picture Goer magazine. The visual was first reproduced as a screen print for Reid’s 1986 exhibition at Hamilton’s Gallery. London.
Vote For Light, 1987.
Lithographic print, 600 x 400mm.
This poster was produced for the Labour supporting Red Wedge movement, and features a common target for Reid’s ire in the 80’s and Margaret Thatcher, casting darkness from her eyes across the British Isles. In a typical Reid gesture, he upends his own poetry in the headline, VOTE FOR LIGHT.
The archive holds the original collage for this piece, which was to have had a black background, but a change in mind at the final printing hurdle adds vitality and lift.
Operating Theatre, 1981.
Colour copy & felt tip on mount board, 420 x 297mm.
Chaos In Cancerland, The Operating Theatre was originally part of a publishing project with the writer Jon Savage, which eventually became the survey ‘Up They Rise - The Incomplete Works Of Jamie Reid (Faber and Faber, 1986). This piece was produced on a four colour Xerox machine (red, blue, green and black), but also features felt tip for extra acidity. The title was taken from a 1920’s homeopathy pamphlet given to Reid by Barbara Harwood, his partner at the time. She had also been the Sex Pistols’ driver.
Avenging Angel, 1989.
Colour Xerox copies mounted on board, 297 x 210mm.
The avenging angel in this colour Xerox work has flown in from Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne (1523) where he is leaping from his chariot. Here, with less cloth and more ‘heft’, he casts his ire on the Capitalist world, spinning through the starry cosmos. This work is a prime example of Reid’s output while working under the roof of Malcolm Garrett’s Assorted iMages in Shoreditch, where Reid had been brought in as a totem, given a studio, a colour copier and a free rein.. It was later used as artwork for The Almighty’s album Crank (1994).
Suburban Press No.1, 1971.
Sheet of Xerox copies, 297 x 210mm.
Suburban Press was a Croydon-based agitprop print collective started in 1970 by Reid with friends Nigel Edwards and Jeremy Brooks (later joined by Sophie Richmond and Nigel Kershaw). As well as printing for other groups like the Black Panthers, Wicked Messengers and PROP (prisoners rights)., Suburban Press produced six issues of their own ‘magazine’. Roughly printed and stapled for the first issues, contents ranged from Situationist inspired salvos at culture and politics to in depth exposes of local council corruption.
Reid was in charge of graphics, honing his skill in making a powerful visual impact. These techniques were exactly what his college friend Malcolm McLaren wanted to exploit for his new adventure, the Sex Pistols.
Four Elements, 1997.
Pencil on paper, 297 x 210mm.
This small painting on paper relates to some important themes in Reid’s work from the mid 90’s onwards. His great uncle George Watson MacGregor Reid had been the Chosen Chief of the Druid order from around 1908 to his death is 1946. George was a confirmed rabble rouser and was still a major influence in the family in the 50’s and 60’s. In 1997 Reid was developing his own connections with the Druid Order by the time he began work on what was to become his Eight Fold Year cycle the following decade.
The Four Elements painting with classic Daisy Wheel configuration is one of many explorations in sacred geometry and colour magic in the Archive, though this one’s inclusion of the OVA symbol is particularly delicate and beautiful. A symbol with multiple meanings, the simplest includes an encircled A for Anarchy and V for Victory.
XL, Beams Gallery, 2016.
Many exhibitions over the years have included vitrines full of marginalia. This selection was exhibited as part of a larger show in collaboration with X-Large at Beams Gallery in Tokyo.
Corporate Slavery, 1994.
Collage on colour copy, 297 x 210mm.
This piece converges many of Reid’s anti-Capitalist targets into one piece. This version also includes Reid’s photograph of friend and collaborator Dennis Lee Rogers, Navajo dancer, who opened a number of Reid’s exhibitions in the UK, dancing in full eagle feather array. This piece was later updated to include the logo of Energy Transfer, a company that tried to force a pipeline through Standing Rock, North Dakota.
Free Pussy Riot, 2012.
Collaging, watercolour & Letraset on paper, 297 x 210mm.
Reid first used a mask to make a subject sinister for the cover of Vague issue 21 in 1989, when Richard Branson got the treatment. Soon Reid had Margaret Thatcher similarly attired, under the guise of Disaster Queen. When Pussy Riot were jailed for reciting their version of A Punk Prayer in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ The Saviour, Reid and many others leapt to their defence. This image was made freely available as a high resolution download and subsequently appeared on banners and tee shirts at protests in support of the group. The image was recently recycled featuring the title Fuck Your Wars for a fundraising print in support of Ukrainian democracy.
Timeless, 2006.
Acrylic on canvas, 2000 x 2000mm.
This painting, in a private collection in Scotland, is one or Reid’s favourites. It has a bouyancy to it that comes from its kaleidoscope of colours and movement, radiating both within and from the canvas. We have literally hundreds of Reid’s paintings in the archive, and almost all of them were produced in a state of inwardness, with no planning or intention. Often Reid may look at canvases in surprise, as if two say ‘I’ve not seen that before, where did it come from?’ Usually painted on the floor of his studio, to a soundtrack of either cricket, the world service or free jazz, the paintings from the 2000’s are an extraordinary production of artistic freedom and a desire to move ever forwards.
UMVLI, 1989.
Acrylic on canvas, 2000 x 2000mm.
The full title of this piece is Universal Majesty Verity Love Infinite, which was a phrase used by Reid’s great uncle George Watson MacGregor Reid when he was the Chosen Chief of the Druid Order (1908-1946). This painting remains unstretched and is installed as a hanging. The featured symbols include variants of Reid’s OVA symbol, which can be read as an encircled A for Anarchy combined with a V for Victory. The visual support for these explorations in sacred geometry is a dense nebular web of intricate paint marks.
Be Afraid, 2020.
Digitally printed paper, 594 x 420mm.
This piece was created specifically for flyposting around Liverpool, and was produced in a run of 400 with 50 being kept aside for further use. Government tactics during the early days of the pandemic were seen by Reid to be more about fostering control rather than cooperation and care.
For this design, an Indian policeman wearing an extraordinary costume was placed alongside text that echoed the phrase Anarchy Is The Key Do It Yourself Is The Melody from his artwork for the Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle. The intention was to suggest 50’s horror film posters.
Peace Is Tough (text), 2010.
Ink on paper, 297 x 210mm.
In the last decade, and particularly during the past three or four years, Reid has produced over a hundred of these text based pieces. Many are free thoughts on current societal biases, particularly concerning politics and culture…The Spectacle, if you will. Despite the ire, Reid always turns to the positive, often offering paths out of seemingly intractable gloom.
“The fear and lies of control are evaporating and apparent, and we are truly expanding into a new tomorrow… Nature knows best.”
God Save The Queen, 1977.
Lithograph on paper, 695 x 495mm.
This version of Reid’s most iconic of artworks is an archive favourite. Many unused versions were trialed, using Peter Gudgeon’s original photograph that had been reproduced in the Sunday People on February 6th 1977 under the banner ‘Nice Work By A Nice Lady” (original cutting also held in the Jamie Reid Archive). Versions with teacups, pot roses, swastikas and a knife were trialed. This version was actually used for a bus campaign during the promotion for the Sex Pistols single, sowing both confusion and no doubt glee within those few who knew what was going on.
Stop Demonising Our Future, 2006.
Collaged Xerox copies, 297 x 210mm.
This piece and its companion God Save Our Yobs were done as commissions for The Guardian. They were extremely well received, particularly by social workers. The works were addressing dangerous attacks on young people by the press and the media, who labelled and demonised kids as dangerous thugs for wearing hoodies, when in reality services and support for young people in tough areas were being slashed. Once again, the real vandals were the government and heavy-handed policing, causing fraught relationships within communities and with social services. As a side note, flowers in the background are taken from a photograph of a summer solstice offering ritual.
Strongroom Studios, 1990 to 2000.
Screenprint & acrylic on canvas.
Jamie Reid was working out of his studio on Curtain Rd, Shoreditch when he was asked by Richard Boote, his friend and owner of the developing Strongroom Studios to refurbish Studio 2, which was in the same Victorian building as Jamie’s studio and had suffered flood damage (after a session with the producer Flood…). Quite marvellously, Boote offered Reid no brief other than to make it interesting, and “just told Jamie to get on with it.”. Drafting in help from friend and designer Mike Nicholls, they began to cover all the walls in colour and magical symbols. Boote was so happy with the results that as the studio complex grew, Reid continued to work, eventually filling what was to become one of the largest music studios complexes in Europe with Reid ‘colour magic’. Wall coverings, curtains, desks, curtains and furniture all erupted in a style unseen elsewhere.
The studios remain, as does much of the work, in an incredible installation which truly equals the Watts Towers in dedication, scale and individual creative energy, yet it remains largely unseen and unknown, not least because of the private nature of the environment.
When The Earth Had Many Moons, 1990.
Colour Xerox collage, 297 x 420mm.
This piece is one of a series of explorations on a theme, featuring multiple moons and standing stones, principally Callanish, on the West coast of Lewis. This location was significant to Reid as he had relocated to Lewis to help run a croft, with friends from the independent print community in London (John and Carola Bell from Crest Press).
This piece is from a period when Reid was using a Ricoh colour copier leased for him by Assorted iMages. The theme refers to Reid’s interest in esoterica and the writings of Jon Michell.
Boy George As Putto, 1988.
Colour copy & felt tip, 297 x 210mm.
This piece was done for Boy George as part of a wider image collection for George’s No Clause 28 single, which was a blow against Thatcher’s Local Government Act, clause 28 of which specifically prohibited the promotion of homosexuality by local councils. The collected artworks also featured Thatcher in a balaclava mask, and George as Noddy.
The posters for the campaign were printed in a particularly vibrant red, with George staring down at the viewer like Big Brother, During one round of proofing George gave Jamie such a hard time for his facial appearance that Jamie had to shave a bit off George’s chin.
That’s confidential!
Britain’s Spiritual Liberation, 1990.
Colour copied collage, 297 x 210mm.
This piece, exhibiting Reid’s regular recycling of visual materials is a prime example of the artist channeling many themes and techniques into one single piece. The OVA, Thatcher in her mask, paint splashes.. rendered in the familiar three colour tones of the Xerox machine - red, blue and green - and shifted between passes to disrupt the image.
Reid often made very subtle shifts between passes to make his images trickier to read (and needing more attention, a good visual manoeuvre). As for the text, Reid has long held that we need uplift from moribund worldview…
As he often said, Onwards and Upwards.
Sound Magic, 1996.
Photographic contact sheet, 202 x 253mm.
This contact sheet comes from a promotional shoot for the first Afro Celt Sound System album, Sound Magic Volume One. However, this shoot doesn’t show the band but rather member s of the Liverpool-based political arts group Visual Stress. This collective, formed around artists and performers Nina Edge, Kif Higgins and Maxine Brown, used public rituals and parades to exorcise the dark spirits of the slave trade in Liverpool.
Without state-backed Arts Council funding, the collective often managed to produce seemingly spontaneous events that pushed further than sanctioned actions would have. Reid was an associate member of the group. This photo session took place at Real World Studios, Wiltshire, using Reid’s UMVLI and OVA hangings as a backdrop. The OVA hanging was also used for the cover of the album, and the symbol continues to be used by the band to this day. The seeds for Afro Celt Sound System had germinated at Strongroom Studios in London, where founder member Simon Emmerson was working with Baaba Maal. In a possibly unique move, Reid as artist was brought in on contract as a contributing member of the band.
Curse English Heritage, 1990.
Acrylic on muslin, 3500 x 2000mm.
This hanging was produced quickly for a demonstration for access to Stonehenge. Painted on the floor in Reid’s studio on Curtain Road in Shoreditch, this piece exhibits all the pace and vitriol of the artist’s work with the Sex Pistols. Reid’s great uncle George Watson MacGregor Reid had land access protests at Stonehenge in the 1920’s when the area was privately owned.
This piece was made for a more contemporary protest when the site was publicly owned, yet still common access was denied by government department English Heritage at important times of the year, summer and winter solstice. Here making the link with the anarchy symbol explicit, the OVA is also aligned with the symbol for the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament.
CND had been very active in Reid’s home tome of Croydon in the 60’s. His brother Bruce, a member of the influential Committee of 100, participated in the Spies For Peace affair who broke into a secret government nuclear bunker in 1963 and published a document of all the found, much to the horror of the establishment. CND was still an active movement, with ten times the membership of today.
Untitled, 2005.
Acrylic on canvas, 1010 x 1340mm.
This work on paper and the accompanying piece right, are prime examples of Reid painting cycle of the period approximately 2000 through 2010. Reid completed literally hundreds of painting on varyingly sized panels of paper and raw canvas.
These were usually produced with no planning or conceptual agenda, but rather deep dives into the subconscious. Almost none of these painting arise from sketching or draft versions.
Untitled , 2006.
Gouache on Saundesr Waterford paper, 560 x 760mm
Further to the annotation left, this extended cycle of painting was often produced while listening to Reid’s beloved free jazz, Coleman, Mingus and Coltrane (Alice) being amongst his favourites. These artists were constants in Reid’s life, from teenage discovery until the end of his life. The paintings themselves often display a combination of precise and intricate passages with looser areas of colour wash. He would lay out multiple plastic cups of colour and dip in and out while laying on the floor of his studio.
Only Free People Can Make Peace, 1992.
Toxteth TV: 1992. 12:24 mins.
Palestine
This project entitled Only Free People Can Make Peace took place in Toxteth, Liverpool in 1992 with a group of refugees from Palestine. They collaborated on a wall piece and exhibition of the results of their discussions and explorations. It touches on many areas of interest to Reid; love, cooperation, expression and unity, as well as exploitation, harm, division and disharmony.
It’s often noted that there are two sides to Reid’s work, one graphic and political, the other expressive and spiritual. Reid sees no contradiction in this. This collaborative project took place at Jump Ship Rat, commissioned by the Liverpool Biennial, made possible by director Alex Cox and Toxteth TV.
Jarman’s QUEER, 1990.
Filmed by Mark Jordan at Derek Jarman’s Queer exhibition. Manchester City Gallery, 1992. 01:10 mins.
Filmed by Mark Jordan at Derek Jarman’s Queer exhibition, Manchester City Gallery, 1992.