Jamie Reid

This image is off the Queen and has the lettering saying God save the queen , sex pistols going across her eyes and face. I think that the most surprising part of this picture is the fact that Jamie Reid has used the royal Queens face and covered her main features, which seems wrong to do. People would never imagine any artist doing this to the Queens face or any part of the royalty family. Using newsprint, photocopy, ink and paper collage did this image. The different medias he has used for this image has given a old vintage effect with the bold outstanding letters. When first looking at this image it gives the feeling that its taking away the queens power and almost mocking her as the bold writing has covered up her mouth and eyes which are the main features of the face.

Jamie Reid was born in 1947 in Belfast, Ireland. Jamie grew up in London. While he was at the art school in the late 1960’s , he met the other students and the future sex pistols manager, Malcolm McLaren who later formed the sex pistols and asked if Jamie Reid would work with the band. Jamie Reid designed his artwork for the Sex pistols and symbolized the English punk rock scene in the late 70s. Jamie Reid says ‘Punk was part of a story that had been going on for the whole of then century, if not longer’.

Jamie went to the Croydon College in London where he studies art and met the sex pistols future manager and left Croydon in the year 1970.

While working closely with the sex pistols Jamie Reid designed artwork for the groups debut studio album , never mind the bollocks, Here’s the sex pistols. He also wrote part of the lyrics for one of the bands most popular songs and produced the cover for the song, a torn up union jack flag with safety pins attached to it. He also produced another picture of the Queen with a safety pin on her lip.

Reid continued to work as an artist, working on his political leanings , set belief.

He also worked with many other artists to create pieces of work that protested nuclear weapons, racism and fairer criminal justice system. For most of the 1980s-90s Jamie Reid worked with the world of music group, Afro Celt sound system. Jamie Reid now has a daughter and is currently marries to artist Maria Hughes.

In my opinion I like the picture because of the concept and the fact that Jamie Reid has almost taken a risk in using the Queens face and covering up the main features. However I also dislike his work because I think that his work is slightly plain. In the image of the queen I think it could have been produced better in my opinion, for example the lettering , it could have faded into the queens eyes and mouth and created the outline of her features . I like how Jamie Reid’s work is almost strange and it definitely shows the punk side of the image and the band ‘sex pistols’, it doesn’t go off the theme which is really good.