multiple

Collaborative Print Portofolios /  by Mark Gubb

A series of portfolios made up of an identical selection of my prints from across the years. These will be shared with a series of collaborators, who will add to the prints in their own unique way - me + 1 other artist per portfolio. A kind-of Basquiat/Warhol scenario. The portfolios will then be offered for sale as full collaborations.

'Phil Myatt' zine /  by Mark Gubb

A zine about Phil Myatt, best known for setting up ‘Mothers’ club in Erdington in the late 60s, using the photos, anecdotes, and recorded conversations I gathered from/with Phil when I was researching my ‘A Real Rock Archive’ project…

…such as when he ran a nightclub in Spain in the 60s and a bunch of key players from the England World Cup-winning squad turned up and he convinced Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst to play on his club’s football team in a beach football match against a rival nightclub the following weekend (I have a photo of this team as evidence).

Origami Extreme /  by Mark Gubb

Take a sheet of any size screw-up-able material and screw it up into a ball.

Take a photo.

Flatten it out again and trace over every fold and crease line with a fine-liner pen.

The reference photo and the lines on the piece of paper then exist as some sort of extreme (impossible?) origami proposition.

Titles as T-shirts /  by Mark Gubb

The titles of my solo shows re-worked as illsutrated heavy metal t-shirts in collaboration with different artist-illustrators I like i.e.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

How Should I Live? (Maybe that’s not the question)

My Empire of Dirt

Revelations: The Poison of Free Thought Prt.II

History is Written by the Winners

Third from the Sun

The Last Judgement

Margate t-shirts /  by Mark Gubb

A series of printed t-shirts that reference the key businesses of my Margate youth (most of which aren’t there anymore), in the way people covet vintage stores selling old American utility workers shirts etc:

Brandybucks, Martell Press, The Kent Hotel, Pisces, The Cottage, Franks, Thorleys, Club Caprice, The Golden Curry, The Ship Inn, The Nayland Rock, Baba Kebabs, The Badge Shop…

Etched Zine /  by Mark Gubb

A hand-printed, hand-made, publication based on the aesthetic of Louise Bourgeois’ ‘He Disappeared into Complete Silence’.

A series of short autobiographical stories, typed on a typewriter, on the left hand page, with an etching that illustrates that story on the right hand page.

Include stories such as when my uncle went boat-fishing and caught a 6ft shark, but when he got home my auntie wouldn’t let him in the house with it, so he went to the local park and dumped the dead shark in the kids paddling pool.

Or when my family went on a package holiday to Spain and on an evening excursion my Dad got drunk with a friend he’d made on holiday and then proceeded to break into the coach that had taken us there. In the process, they turned on the windscreen wipers and couldn’t turn them off again, so there was just our two families sat on the coach waiting for everyone else to arrive back at the end of the night, with my Dad and his friend creasing up laughing about the windscreen wipers.

Or the time I was out playing in the ashes of a large bonfire with my brother and some friends and I picked up a breeze block and threw it and it hit my brother in the back of the head, so he ran indoors and told my Mum and Dad I’d thrown a lump of wood at him, and I thought it best not to correct him that it was a breeze block.

Or the time a teacher at school pinned my friend to the wall by his throat and pulled his fist back to punch him, before catching himself on, because my friend belched in class.

Or the time I was on a last train back from Birmingham with my wife and singer called Bob Catley walked past and I said, “Didn;t you used to sing for Magnum?” and he replied, '“Still do!”, so he sat with us until Burton-on-Trent where he was being met by Girlschool’s manager. But then after Burton-on-Trent, he reappeared, as he’d expected the doors on the train to open automatically and they didn’t, so he missed his stop.

Or the time I went to L.A. with my friend and we got drunk at The Rainbow on The Sunset Strip and had to get a taxi all the way back across L.A. to our hotel, Downtown, and whilst I ran up to the room to get the money to pay the taxi, the cab driver pulled a gun on my friend.

Or the time Patrick Smith and Nicholas Smedley had a fight at break-time and Nicholas Smedley spat in Patrick Smith’s hair.

All in This Together print/sculpture /  by Mark Gubb

The phrase ‘All in this together’ written in the style of the ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ gate outside of Auschwitz, rendered as a print or sculpture.

‘We’re all in this together’ become the catchphrase and persistent lie of the Tory party from 2008 onwards to justify the crippling programme of austerity they unleashed upon the UK.

80s Politics Western Movie poster /  by Mark Gubb

A poster that lists the main politicians involved in 80s politics, from a Western perspective, arranged according to the rules of a classic Western movie poster i.e. the leading man’s name is written biggest, with the leading lady’s name second biggest. Smaller, underneath, are the main supporting actor’s names.

i.e…

Biggest: Ronald Reagan

Second biggest: Margaret Thatcher

Supporting biggest: Mikhail Gorbachev, Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, The Ayatollah Khomeini…

Rules of the The Pit poster /  by Mark Gubb

A poster-diagram of ‘the pit’ from heavy a metal concert that defines the different areas and the unspoken rules that exist around it, such as…

Front row/on-the-barrier, about 2 or 3 people deep, un-moving.

Behind that - the main pit. An area of non-specific size (ebbs and flows in size and dynamic throughout the gig). The main rule - if someone falls, you help them back-up immediately.

On the edge of that - the pit-guards. A self-selected row of people, one-person deep, who act as a barrier between the pit and the people who just want to stand and watch. These people play an active role in, both, defending the standers from the pit, and also pinballing wayward pit members back towards the centre of the action. Pit-guards often peel-off into the pit for a while, then rejoin the row of pit-guards.

Behind that, the standers. The people who just want to stand and watch to enjoy the gig. Secondary rule - don’t start a new pit amongst the standers; make your way to the main pit and join in.

Etc. etc.