Use of "Stuckism"
and "Stuckist(s)" spreads
The first Anti-Stuckist, 25 October 1999
This was the incident where two Chinese performance artists, Xi,
37, and Chai, 43, jumped on Tracey Emin's bed in Tate Britain during
the 1999 Turner Prize Show, as reported by Fiachra Gibbons in the Guardian:
"The Battle of the Bed may have been all over in a few minutes
but it will go down in art history as the defining moment of the new
and previously unheard of Anti-Stuckist Movement. That much can be discerned
from the slogans scrawled on JJ Xi and Yuan Chai's bodies."
(The slogan on one of their backs was 'Anti-Stuckism').
http://www.guardian.co.uk/turner/Story/0,2763,201733,00.html
Launch of Stickism, 24 October
2000
Albeit by accident, Stickism has now entered the language. The
following is how it all starts on a message board:
"I saw an article in the Guardian today about Stickism, a new art
movement which want to reject conceptual art and get back to paintings.
The accompanying photo was a picture of a Stickist artist and her self-portrait.
Name of the artist? Ella Guru!
http://www.beefheart.com/fireparty/archive/2000/10/msg00247.html
- Mike Godwin To: fireparty@beefheart.com Subject: Re: Stickism Date:
Tue, 24 Oct 2000"
Stuckist supporter with no links to the group
"I am an Irish painter, born in Derry. I studied at Chelsea School of
Art, London, and also at Camberwell School of Art, London, where I trained
as a painter and ceramist. I support and adhere to the principles of
the Stuck-ists."
- Elsie T. Mckeegan, artist
http://www.breakingart.com/bam/interactive/hp.php3?artist=elsie&view=statement
Denial of being a stuckist, 20 April 2001
That is, with a lower case 's' for a generic term, as in 'hoover' for
example. This honour goes to Oscar-winner Bob Godfrey, creator of Roobarb
and Henry the Cat. This is what he says in The Guardian:
" I'm not what you'd call computer literate but I employ people
who are. I'm not a stuckist."
http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,475302,00.html
"Stuckists" enters Wikipedia, 27 September
2001
First entry here
by Rrees,
who also edited MapleSyrup, Georges Braque and Sub-Roman Britain. The
page was redirected to "Stuckism" on 18 June 2002.
Anti-Stuckist in a manifesto, 2 November 2001
Independent film-maker Andrew Kotting (latest
film: This Filthy Earth) is profiled in the Guardian. His manifesto
ends with the declaration: "The work should prove anti-Stuckist, genuinely
post-modern, contingent and ad hoc in its thinking."
Read the article on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4289744,00.html
"Stuckist" enters kinky fiction, found
17 December 2001
As far as we know 'Ascent into Chastity' by Ann X is the first
work of fiction to make reference to the Stuckists, as follows
: '....I was a struggling artist, who'd never married or had a family
and he was a very rich widower, with three, grown-up children, who liked
my paintings. Not many did and I was broke!' 'They're good!' I meant
the reassurance. 'We bought one about eight years ago and still like
it.' I counted the others on my fingers. 'And we've bought another three
since including last night's.' 'But they're not very Tracy Emin. Not
very modern! Not very original! In fact, very stuckist!' She paused
for effect. The story hots up as you can see from the following excerpt:
"What the hell was I doing taking off my clothes in the locked toilet
of an art gallery with a very frustrated artist and standing there in
just my tightly laced corset, stockings and heels?"
Read the whole salacious/chaste tale on: http://www.tpe.com/~altarboy/nt010526.htm
First mention of Stuckist in a horoscope, January
2002
This particular distinction has been achieved by Leigh Oswald in The
January Perspective 2002 for artnet.com Certain Leos take note. Here
is the text:
" If born August 14th to 18th you must rely on yourself alone,
as others will not be the rock you want. But then again do you need
one now. A rock would keep you tethered to your present path, whereas
a loose cannon of a partner may just shock you into the direction you
need to start considering for real growth. Accept changes in style and
lateral creative ideas as a norm for you now. You are no "stuckist"
currently."
Apology for sounding like a Stuckist, found 10 February
2002
'Novadaddy' on pub8.ezboard says:
" Sorry to sound like a Stuckist but, what did you think about
that guy who nearly won the Turner Prize with the painting of the spaceship
that he'd "appropriated" from an old sci-fi novel cover? Personally,
I get a little peeved at "high artists" who steal from the "low arts"
(comics, fantasy art) with the suggestion that they have imbued it with
an extra context, the nature of which is often rather flimsy."
See it here.
"Stuckism" in Wikipedia, 18 June 2002
Entry here
by Toby
Bartels. The page on "Stuckists" was redirected to it.
Government Minister compared
to Stuckists, 2002,
A web article The trouble with Turner by Aidan
Campbell starts:
" Am I the only person to suspect that culture minister Kim Howells'
Stuckist-style intervention into the Turner Prize this year was another
case of government spin?"
http://www.spiked-online.co.uk/Articles/00000006DB20.htm
Stuckism in an encyclopaedia,
2002,
The first appearance of Stuckism in a print encyclopaedia:
Styles, Schools and Movements, an Encyclopaeditc Guide to Modern
Art (Amy Dempsey, Thames and Hudson 2002). The definition reads:
"Neo -conservative movement started in the UK in 1999 by artists Billy
Childish and Charles Thomson. Thomson derived the name from an insult
hurled at Childish by his ex-girlfriend Tracey Emin ('Your paintings
are stuck, you are stuck!'). Calling themselves 'the first remoderist
art group', they agitate against Postmodernism, Installation and Conceptual
Art - favoured by the YBAs - and promote conservative painting techniques
and a rebirth of spirituality in art."
Stuckist Net
Nothing to do with the art movement. The name has been used in the computer
world by Andrew Orlowski to propose a 'Stuckist net' - 'one in which
the hardware and protocols remain open'. Read about it here.
Neo-Stuckists and Stickists
Not the accidental launch of the Stickists as above,
but the real thing in Scotland. They say, 'Why 'Neo-Stuckists' instead
of Stuckists? As Groucho Marx said "I wouldn't join any club that would
have me as a member". Whilst we were inspired to a great degree by The
Stuckists, we feel it would compromise our autonomy and integrity to
wrap ourselves in the Stuckist flag.' See http://home.clara.net/stickist/home.html
(link now defunct)
Stuckism in rock lyric, 2002
The honour for the first in this department may well go to the group
Half Man Half Biscuit on their album Cammell Laird Social
Club (2002). The track If I Had Possession Over Pancake Day begins:
"Outside Goldsmith's, coughing up blood -
Turner Prize judge cries, "Christ! That's good!
"Leave it as it is, it'll get first place -
"We'll call it 'A Full Shift at the Coal Face'.
"For you might be a Stuckist or a Y.B.A
"But you're no longer a miner as of today".
30 second sample
of the track on Last.fm
(player top right of page). Full lyrics on Half
Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project.
Non-Stuckist
artist described as "Stuckist" in style, 21.1.04
Fisun Guner in The
Evening Standard said
the work of Sophie von Hellerman (at one time a Charles Saatchi favourite,
but never a member of the Stuckists) "seemed more Stuckist than
Saatchi".
"Stuckist"
enters Wikipedia, 1 January 2005
Entry here
by Kaihsu
as a redirect to Charles Thomson changed seconds later by Kaihsu as
a redirect to Stuckism.
A "Classic Stuckist", 24 September 2005
Under "Poetry and Culture" in 3 Quarks Daily, on the
subject of "Poetry
and limitations of the ironic mode in the new millennium, Part 2",
Australian poet Peter Nicholson wrote:
"Wagner
says it is essential to have a knowledge of the art that has brought
us to the present moment. This has nothing to do with burying one’s
head in the sand—being a classic Stuckist—and everything to do with
knowing the good that is not interred with bones, the art that stands
as a challenge to everything we achieve and which it is our duty to
honour—or what will be left that that will be worthwhile?"
Stuckist Atheism, 31
December 2005
An article in the Daily Telegraph Our
troops don't need a tieless Tony (31.12.05) by Vicki Woods introduces
this concept to the world
(12th paragraph) :
"In a year when militant "faith groups" are making the godless
feel rather leery about their stuckist atheism..."
Stuckist suits, 15 January
2006
The
most extraordinary new use of the word Stuckist occured in the following
phrase: "Stuckist suits" in an article in The Independent
(15.1.06). What exactly is a Stuckist suit? (One made from paintings
perhaps?). The surrounding text, in an article about a classical concert
at Shoreditch Town Hall, provides little more elucidation:
"In Shoreditch Town Hall, a venue so intimately associated with
the art world that you can almost smell Tracey Emin's bedlinen, chic
geeks in Stuckist suits rubbed shoulders with college girls in biker
boots." Read it here.
Pizza Stuckists, 18
March 2006
Now you can be a pizza Stuckist, if you want, according to "Side
orders: Artful eating" by Caroline Stacey
in The Independent food
and drinks review (18.3.06):
It's not your usual quiche and carrot cake at the independently owned
restaurant underneath Sale's arts centre. Pizzas come topped with Thai
curry or Chinese duck; pizza Stuckists can stick to margarita, salads
or pasta bakes from the pizza oven. Waterside Arts Centre, Sale, Cheshire
(0161 962 6666) CCA Café
Stuckist British sense of fair play, 30 September
2006
Vicki Woods in The
Daily Telegraph:
I always feel a bit uncomfortable when I'm on the same side as a
baying mob (the stuckist British sense of fair play being so powerful)
Stuckist everyman, 7 December 2006
By Chris Ziegler from OC
[Orange County] Weekly:
Local lovefest with unbreakable post-ponk from Geisha Girls, Fall-go-gothisms
from former cover features Squab and the stuckist everyman rock & roll
of the Thingz, who play the kind of nourishing grawge crud you can eat
three times a day, like potatoes or pizza.
Defined
as new word, 27 August 2007
John Ayto, editor of The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang, defines
new words
in The
Times,
including Stuckism (on
the cover of Times 2 magazine).
BBC's
stuckism, 31 August 2007
A post on the BBC Newsnight message
board (post 132) criticised
the laziness and stuckism the BBC is currently undergoing".
Gordon
Brown accused of political stuckism, 4 November 2007
by
Martin Ivens in The
Sunday Times.
Conservapedia accused,
1 July 2008
The "much-needed alternative" (for conservative Christians) to Wikipedia
gets a bit stuckist over bacterial evolution, says Charles Arthur,
The Guardian technology
blog.
Polly Toynbee uses "stuckist",
4 October 2008
Talking of the Labour party, Polly Toynbee says in The
Guardian, Fresh thinkers are needed, not the stuckists of more
than a decade ago steeped in market idolatry.
"Response:
We are not stuckists from 1997", 8 October 2008
Robert Philpot in
The
Guardian refutes
Polly Toynbee's article above.
.
Thoughts
on being stuck
The
origin of the word 'Stuckism' is described above and was originally
poetic in its inspiration. However, like poetry it has come to reveal
deeper meanings as time has gone on. It stands, for example, in stark
contrast to the Western concept of progress = something- to-always-be-desired
= new = better (which has led to a manic concentration on more/bigger/smaller/faster
cars/videos/records/CDs not to mention trashier shopping malls/food
outlets/fashion.
So a deeper level of Stuckism is that continual 'progress' is not only
not always good, but can actually be, paradoxically, a deterioration,
and that sometimes the best thing is to do nothing (which is also a
statement and may require perception and awareness), to be in the eyes
of so-called progressives 'stuck'.
A classic case of this is 'progressive' intensive, chemical farming
as opposed to 'stuck' organic vegetables, where the original method
has proved to be better than the'improvement'.
We would of course make a similar comparison between the 'fast food'
junk-art of the conceptual Brit Art school and the organic art of Stuckism.
It is surprising how often the word 'stuck' occurs in everyday conversation
and texts, nearly always in a pejorative sense. We would like to highlight
the use of this concept and also to consider whether the assumption
of its negativeness is appropriate in the circumstances in which it
occurs.
Rather than feeling stuck and therefore a sense of frustration that
one cannot move forward, it might well be better to adopt the attitude
that the cirumstance is a good one to be in, that it is in fact quite
acceptable to be stuck and to do nothing, and that this is a healthy
and unavoidable part of life.
It might then be found not only that one is able to take a perspective
previously not noticed, but that circumstances change of their own volition
to provide the right answer.
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Contributions
for this page giving examples and mentions of Stuckism should be sent
to stuckism@yahoo.co.uk. Please
give if possible source, date and, if relevant, URL. Indicate whether
you want to be credited and your email address included, or not.
