#coldwarsteve

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Bought a bunch of zines from @roughtradebooks to keep me occupied. . Awesome stuff from @sportsbanger @coldwarsteve @salena.godden @sophyhollington @jonsav1966 @babakganjei @_danielblumberg_ @anadasilva.theraincoats and others. . . . #zine #zines #fanzine #fanzines #smallpress #indiepublishing #smallpress #roughtrade #roughtradebooks #roughtradepublishing #coldwarsteve #sportsbanger #runwildinit #filmideas #diaryofabootlegger #drawingsofminus #pessimismisforlightweights https://www.instagram.com/p/B-CCKBehiiP/?igshid=x4x5k01h0shs

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Unboxing Cold War Steve

Politics in England. It's never a good thing. Every politician seems to hate each other, they're the reason why the country is falling apart and probably also the reason why you'll fall out with your family over Christmas dinner this year, 'Oh, but Boris wasn't that bad' Your nan will say after her 5th Bailey's before claiming that he was just a very social guy,,,, perhaps a little bit too social though. Politics are full of scandal, especially in England anyway. Rumour has it that parliament has some of the best class a dealers in the country. And through the scandals, pig shagging, cheating, drug scandals and Eat Out To Help Out, there was one artist who through it all kept shedding light on the endless situations.

Cold War Steve, Christopher Spencer is a British based montage artist has been poking fun at the way politics in England have been going for years, to the point that a few famous faces have been upset about being featured in his works and have decided to block the man via Twitter. He takes concepts of many minor and major things in the country happening at the same time and condenses it all into surreal montaged scenes. Cutting and pasting already existing digital images into newly formed digital spaces, he creates worlds that don't exist, but also do exist theoretically all together. The montages at first were typically created on his phone while he would be on the way to work, when he was a probationary officer. Now I don't know about you, but with the themes of Britishness and politics in his works, it just makes sense to me that that was his job.

I've talked about the works of montage before and how it can be such a fantastic form of art, but I've also spoken about how photomontage can be frustrating and lazy What I'm trying to say here is don't be Richard Prince. Photomontage can be used as a way to take something that already exists and replace it into something that writes a completely different narrative. For example, in this montage below where Cold War Steve pokes fun at Piers Morgan and his obsession (derogatory) with the Royal Family.

Living in a council estate home, sitting in bed all day and not having the guts to just go outside and touch grass. The walls immersed with images of Meghan Markle because for whatever reason Piers Morgan cannot seem to comprehend or accept that she is married to Prince Harry. For years, Piers hasn't been able to stop talking about it and to be honest, I'm not sure he ever will. The final touch of this image is Steve McFadden, also known as Phil Mitchell from EastEnders, entering through the doorway. One of the main themes throughout Cold War Steve's body of work, is that in most montages our beloved Phil Mitchell will be placed somewhere in the montages. He has nothing to do with any of the politics or the narrative behind the works, he's just there. When the artist was asked about this, he did not have a full reason as to why he was always placed in the works, he just was. Perhaps this is to add to the concept of having a national treasure placed through the ever growing body of works. He stated; 'He's an everyman, an observer, the hero of the pieces, the anchor to the real world. He's me looking on in disbelief really.'

Spencer went on to then publish books, Cold War Steve Presents... The Festival of Brexit was the photobook I'd asked for Christmas, so I could use it as a reference point when I was creating my final major project for uni. The works throughout this book are all channelled through anxieties which are under Spencer's persona of Cold War Steve. They all tackled real situations that happened within the country, something that we are still reeling from long term affects with. The collages then begin from high res background images being purchased and thus, the image is used as the initial background for the work. Through this, people and events are then placed in the space to create a mish mash of a hellscape.

The works of Cold War Steve became so popular that he was then commissioned for the cover of Time in 2019. The issue featuring titled pieces such as 'How Britain Went Bonkers.' and 'The Brexit Fiasco', and the cover featuring a lovely double decker bus crashing into the Thames, it is so so British. If there was anything that could be created to be the perfect summary of the Festival of Brexit book this would be it. But truthfully, if I had one thing to say against the work, it would be that I was a bit miffed by the lack of creative control that Spencer had over this. The magazine really wanted Meghan and Harry to be in the piece, not that they were 'bad guys' or that they really had anything to do with the work at all. Its only staple to the people at Time was that it was British, and that was its perfect end result. Original ideas were also taken out of the cover piece because it was feared it was just 'too offensive' for people to be looking at. I suppose its utter Britishness makes sense when it comes to designing a brief for an American audience, I mean does anyone know an American person who knows who Phil Mitchell is? The best part? Mr McFadden is so small, but he still made the cut to the final cover, if you squint he's sitting on the bottom deck of the bus.

'I think in one of the early drafts I put a sleeping Alan Brazil on the back of the bus and they circled it and said 'who is this?''. I imagine this would be the same with a lot of the typical characters used throughout the works.

In another piece for the magazine, he has an image of McFadden and Bungle the bear selling cups of tea in a takeaway van to the side of London Bridge. When asked about it, it was to ensure that the montages stayed classic to the way that Spencer makes them,,, otherwise Time may as well have designed the cover themselves. What I really love about all of these works is that I feel as though it should be a regular for Private Eye, which if you're not familiar with that sector of works then you should be. The regularly published newspaper styled magazine features a large array of certified politician moments. It uses all of their slipups, scandals and downright silly things they have done and is then redesigned as satire for the publication. It is not just specifically featured on England itself and tends to go worldwide. Of course though, the main face of the magazine is a bald beer bellied man wearing an England shirt, otherwise known as our beloved Barry 63. Know Your Meme describes it as 'Barry 63 is a series of memes that use a photograph of a British man man with a pint of beer in his hand, while smiling into the camera, referred to as 'Barry 63'.'

In 2020, Spencer was also commissioned to display his works as part of the Arts By The Sea Festival, an event which I wrote about a few months ago. He put together a 5m high and 25m long windbreaker displaying a selection of works, but mostly to display Bournemouth in a positive light.

The original works submitted were hopeful positivity vs dystopia with political evil sandworms and a naked Boris Johnson, the council then agreed to display the works so long as the dystopian side was not on public view. This was pretty much to ensure that people didn't get upset from the local works made for the show. The council commented saying they didn't want to display anything with political undertones and yet decided to let one of the most political artists out there create works for the show. I mean, make it make sense. They stated, 'the beach is a public space and it is a privilege for anyone to be granted an opportunity to use it to promote their work. While we would like to see more art on the seafront, this wonderful space is used by people from all walks of life.' The whole concept of this seems crazy to me. I feel that if you are commissioned to create something for an arts festival then you should be able to curate whatever you want, to be able to express yourself as an artist. Art is made to sometimes be bold, controversial and sometimes to anger you because you don't agree with the overall message. I think that this is clearly displayed through Spencer's works. 'I feel that the dystopian images risks causing further division at a time when we need to come together as a population.' This feels like it was the councils way of saying I mean yeah we like your work, but also don't make anything you normally do because we can't upset Gary walking his dogs this weekend. Although they didn't allow the whole piece to physically be on show, thank God the council allowed for you to look at the works on the Arts By The Sea website.

At the end of the day, I think Spencer tackled some very strong events happening and left these open to a discussion, I'm a firm believer that they should have been displayed as they were because it almost takes away a lot of the meaning if you're just showing the more positive and hopeful side on its lonesome.

To put it bluntly, I love Cold War Steve. The type of work he creates allows you to both laugh along with the works, but to also understand the type of frustration that is felt through the works. I love that they are all literal, it's hard not to know what is happening when we live in a world that is swarmed by politics and their daily scandals. I love the roughly created cut and paste job, it makes me feel a bit nostalgic. It looks like when you get a piece of card and then you physically cut all of these images out of a magazine to create a physical product. However, I really think there is a charm to all of these works being digitally created. It's like a homage to when you see the news digitally online and then you immediately create something in response to that piece of news you read. His Twitter feed is full of daily montages ready to feast your eyes on and with that are accompanying photobooks. There is nothing I love more than to check my feed and see a new Cold War Steve montage.

Cold War Steve's archival works can be found here

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Not Harold Shipman...

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