#10 The RACK, UNIVERSAL BASIC OUBLIETTE_ The Weaponised Welfare State, CRONUSian Corporatocracy and the Future Man Ensorcelled by Benefits V_s The One Dollar Damsel, 2021. Giclée print. Original 1/1. 29.7 x 42 cm

“The pupil of his left eye is tattooed Hate, the pupil of his right eye is tattooed Love.” – Adapted from Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) in NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955, Director: Charles Laughton)

The RACK is a London born London based artist. The World renowned photographer Wolfgang Tillmans called him ‘the unsung hero of the London underground scene.

He began his art career working in the performance art scene that enlivened London clubs and nightlife in the late nineties. He presented and collaborated on pieces for infamous S and M Gabba club FIST, innovative noise/pop art experiment HARDER FASTER LOUDER and influential Glam Rock venue CLUB KITTEN, Rave Futurist Sex Club Torture Garden amongst many others. This area of his interest culminating in managing the door of the World Famous KASHPOINT club where he made his mark and imprinted the club with his confrontational outfits that smashed art into fashion laced with vulgarity, that the author Lida Hujic wrote in her book, a classic examination of counter culture to pop culture, THE FIRST TO KNOW, that he ‘…influenced a generation of fashion students.’

Overtime he has refined his art practise and is now working primarily in the Digital Form and has developed a form of ‘digital collage’ to create his intense images. He has also refined and distilled and defined his influences and interests. These interest emerge as his main themes and consist of Post Humanism, Trans Humanism, Sex and Sexuality and Perversion and The Grotesque, Horror, Sci Fi and Fantasy, The Philosophy of War and Heroism/Villainy and the weaker In-between and Religion, Rich and Poor, Control and the Abandoning of Freedom, the use and misuse of Language and History, Propaganda and Politics; Good vs EVIL and all of this through a hard analytical Futurist uncompromising lens that employs a laconic style of humour to stitch gossamer to the blade. He prefers to present unfinished tales via the still image implementing a sparse non didactic narrative style to allow the viewer as much freedom as they require to fill out and finish the picture/movie.

His favourite visual art is Bacon, Giger, Superhero comics and folk art and is very influenced by THE MOVIES.

He has collaborated and worked with renowned artists such as Franco B, Wolfgang Tillmans, Richard Torry, Susanne Oberbeck, Gary Odwyer (Centre of Attention gallery), Genesis P Orridge, Laura K Jones, Richard Learoyd, Alana Lake, Mathew Glammore.

He has had solo shows at The Residence Gallery, Rio Cinema Dalston, duo shows (with Susanne Oberbeck) at Goswell Road Paris and presented pieces in group shows too numerous to mention.

He has been a rent boy drug addict, sauna attendant shop assistant and numerous other small jobs.

“Now see the left eye is wrestling with the right eye and its winning…but here now the left eye is coming back..its got the right eye..but the right pushes back !...” – Adapted from Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) in NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955, Director: Charles Laughton)